Picture of the Day · NASA
Pathfinder on Mars
2026-07-04
On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- E. Delporte
- Discovery site
- Uccle Obs.
- Discovery date
- 13 September 1926
- Pronunciation
- / n ɒ f r ə ˈ t iː t ə /
- Named after
- Nefertiti , (Ancient Egyptian Queen)
- Alternative designations
- 1926 RK · 1929 CV
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 88.73 yr (32,409 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.1868 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6274 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.9071 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.96 yr (1,810 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 250.26 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 55.68 / day
- Inclination
- 5.4840°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 318.69°
- Argument of perihelion
- 267.47°
- Dimensions
- 21.346 ± 0.106 km , 22.03 km (derived) , 23.186 ± 0.116 km , 23.92 ± 0.74 km , 26.73 ± 0.45 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 21.346
- Orbital period
- 1810.023750016624
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1929 CV
- time of discovery or invention
- 1926-09-13
- orbital inclination
- 5.489694381208494
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.097526403749831
- periapsis
- 2.623161737778458
- apoapsis
- 3.190109140567123
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.906635439172791
- mean anomaly
- 128.6972774316285
- longitude of ascending node
- 318.5860136599715
- argument of periapsis
- 265.5751054703546
- absolute magnitude
- 10.79
- albedo
- 0.142
- rotation period
- 6.15
- time of periapsis
- 2460353.4301980175
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1068 Nofretete (/nɒfrəˈtiːtə/), provisional designation 1926 RK, is a stony asteroid from the background population in the outer asteroid belt, approximately 23 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 13 September 1926, by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle. The asteroid was named after the Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti by its German name "Nofretete". The near-Earth asteroid 3199 Nefertiti is also named after her.
Orbit and classification