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
- 28 January 1930
- Named after
- A girl's name picked from a, popular German calendar
- Alternative designations
- 1930 BJ · 1959 CJ, 1967 EV
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Hilda
- Observation arc
- 87.27 yr (31,875 days)
- Aphelion
- 4.1018 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.3959 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.7489 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 7.26 yr (2,651 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 131.28 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 8 8.88 / day
- Inclination
- 9.7423°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 156.73°
- Argument of perihelion
- 220.87°
- Dimensions
- 56.347 ± 0.194 km , 57.59 ± 2.2 km , 57.65 km (derived) , 64.21 ± 0.96 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 14.4 h (dated) , 44.023 ± 0.2530 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 56.337
- Orbital period
- 2656.643108199728
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1967 EV
- time of discovery or invention
- 1930-01-28
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.07991941854941861
- albedo
- 0.061
- orbital inclination
- 9.80380891540623
- periapsis
- 3.453947436059952
- apoapsis
- 4.053976338647964
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.753961887353958
- mean anomaly
- 181.4006235616604
- longitude of ascending node
- 156.1161114108832
- argument of periapsis
- 216.6833384262253
- absolute magnitude
- 9.98
- rotation period
- 648.0
- time of periapsis
- 2462318.485562621
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1144 Oda, provisional designation 1930 BJ, is a dark Hildian asteroid from the outermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 57 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 28 January 1930, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. The asteroid's name is a German female name, not related to the discoverer's contemporaries.
Orbit and classification