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
- O. Oikawa
- Discovery site
- Tokyo Astronomical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 September 1928
- Pronunciation
- Japanese: [ hakone ]
- Named after
- Mount Hakone , (Japanese volcanic mountain)
- Alternative designations
- 1928 RJ · 1926 EC, 1950 QH 1 · 1952 BE 1 , A906 RD · A917 DD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) background
- Observation arc
- 110.19 yr (40,247 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.0081 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3686 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6884 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.41 yr (1,610 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 13.741 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 24.96 / day
- Inclination
- 13.377°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 329.00°
- Argument of perihelion
- 80.805°
- Mean diameter
- 24.44 km (derived) , 24.73 ± 1.1 km , 24.90 ± 0.57 km , 26.684 ± 0.397 km , 29.567 ± 0.135 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 26.684
- Orbital period
- 1610.095082285199
- Image
- 001098-asteroid shape model (1098) Hakone.png
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A917 DD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1928-09-05
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1161836844623779
- orbital inclination
- 13.39196375174908
- periapsis
- 2.376096523915894
- apoapsis
- 3.000804721611631
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.688450622763763
- mean anomaly
- 323.3861939904837
- longitude of ascending node
- 328.8713990865718
- argument of periapsis
- 81.73722137420467
- absolute magnitude
- 10.54
- albedo
- 0.206
- rotation period
- 7.142
- time of periapsis
- 2461164.2547472212
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
1098 Hakone (prov. designation: 1928 RJ) is a background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt. The X-type asteroid has a rotation period of 7.1 hours and measures approximately 25 kilometers (16 miles) in diameter. Discovered by Japanese astronomer Okuro Oikawa at Tokyo Observatory in 1928, the asteroid was later named after the volcanic Mount Hakone in Japan.
Orbit and classification