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
- 9 April 1931
- Named after
- unknown
- Alternative designations
- 1931 GE · 1929 CM, 1953 AH · 1957 UF 1 , A907 GG · A908 KA, A916 LA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) · Hilda
- Observation arc
- 109.98 yr (40,172 days)
- Aphelion
- 4.6127 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.3574 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.9851 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 7.96 yr (2,906 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 209.15 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 7 26.04 / day
- Inclination
- 7.1985°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 88.336°
- Argument of perihelion
- 209.12°
- Jupiter moid
- 0.6111 AU
- Mean diameter
- 82.72 km (calculated) , 97 km , 97.63 ± 2.30 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 97.0
- Orbital period
- 2901.250468111405
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A916 LA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1931-04-09
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1559258300383183
- absolute magnitude
- 9.41
- orbital inclination
- 7.188932773625121
- periapsis
- 3.360251689581871
- apoapsis
- 4.6017303474574
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.980991018519635
- mean anomaly
- 249.2201485130733
- longitude of ascending node
- 88.14370441603577
- argument of periapsis
- 205.1063374769598
- albedo
- 0.058
- rotation period
- 14.894
- time of periapsis
- 2461893.2780443993
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
1180 Rita, provisional designation 1931 GE, is a dark and spheroidal Hildian asteroid from the outermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 97 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 9 April 1931, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. Any reference of its later name, Rita, is unknown.
Orbit and classification