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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 7 December 1926
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ m ɛ n θ ə /
- Named after
- Mentha (flowering plant)
- Alternative designations
- 1926 XB& · 1951 CF 1 , 1952 LD · A917 CB , A924 EP
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background
- Observation arc
- 93.66 yr (34,208 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5832 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9555 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2693 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.42 yr (1,249 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 142.04 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 17.88 / day
- Inclination
- 7.3716°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 93.851°
- Argument of perihelion
- 43.568°
- Dimensions
- 9.94 ± 0.28 km , 12.619 ± 0.242 km , 13.59 ± 3.01 km , 13.660 ± 0.134 km , 13.675 km , 13.68 km (taken) , 15.37 ± 2.11 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Mentha
- Followed by
- 1079 Mimosa
- Follows
- 1077 Campanula
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 12.619
- Orbital period
- 1248.641680276064
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A924 EP
- time of discovery or invention
- 1926-12-07
- orbital inclination
- 7.36520889275032
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1383687286822963
- albedo
- 0.262
- periapsis
- 1.95530443999822
- apoapsis
- 2.583306228131196
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.269305334064708
- mean anomaly
- 285.9073616432586
- longitude of ascending node
- 93.75540170015769
- argument of periapsis
- 44.33872353992435
- absolute magnitude
- 11.63
- rotation period
- 85.0
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2461257.4865457052
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1078 Mentha, provisional designation 1926 XB, is a stony background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 7 December 1926, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. Only in 1958, it was realized that this object was a rediscovery of an already numbered but lost asteroid (864 Aase).
The asteroid was named after the flowering plant of the mint family, Mentha. It has a longer-than average spin rate of 85 hours and possibly an irregular, elongated shape.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1078 Mentha” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.