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
- 17 October 1930
- Named after
- Sea of Marmara , (Bosporus/Dardanelles)
- Alternative designations
- 1930 UC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) · Eos
- Observation arc
- 86.72 yr (31,673 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3607 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6956 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0281 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.27 yr (1,925 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 227.47 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 13.2 / day
- Inclination
- 10.074°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 1.0132°
- Argument of perihelion
- 351.99°
- Dimensions
- 16.21 ± 1.6 km , 16.46 km (derived) , 17.01 ± 3.92 km , 17.18 ± 1.10 km , 17.77 ± 4.33 km , 18.142 ± 0.159 km , 18.496 ± 0.180 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 12 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Sea of Marmara
- Followed by
- Q136771
- Follows
- 1173 Anchises
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 18.142
- Orbital period
- 1921.12578485887
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1930 UC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1930-10-17
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1100257582265624
- albedo
- 0.086
- orbital inclination
- 10.06132338943317
- periapsis
- 2.691632023365057
- apoapsis
- 3.357154328027506
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.024393175696281
- mean anomaly
- 67.43684250551392
- longitude of ascending node
- 0.8606373862831018
- argument of periapsis
- 354.247678071479
- absolute magnitude
- 11.49
- rotation period
- 12.0
- time of periapsis
- 2460640.6259528142
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1174 Marmara, provisional designation 1930 UC, is a stony Eoan asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 17 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 17 October 1930, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was later named after the Sea of Marmara, located between Europe and Asia.
Classification and orbit
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q136762” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.