File:1249Rutherfordia_(Lightcurve_Inversion).png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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
- 4 November 1932
- Named after
- Rutherford , ( inner suburb of New York City )
- Alternative designations
- 1932 VB · 1925 SF, 1942 XV
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora
- Observation arc
- 84.98 yr (31,040 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.3947 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0534 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2240 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.32 yr (1,211 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 150.14 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 49.92 / day
- Inclination
- 4.8756°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 259.00°
- Argument of perihelion
- 223.37°
- Dimensions
- 12.41 ± 0.8 km , 13.063 ± 0.097 km , 14.060 ± 0.069 km , 15.77 ± 0.69 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 18.20 ± 0.01 h , 18.220 ± 0.005 h , 18.24 h , 18.242 ± 0.001 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Ernest Rutherford
- Followed by
- 1250 Galanthus
- Follows
- 1248 Jugurtha
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 13.063
- Orbital period
- 1211.831584080896
- Image
- 1249Rutherfordia (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1942 XV
- time of discovery or invention
- 1932-11-04
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.0766682518748738
- albedo
- 0.251
- absolute magnitude
- 11.44
- orbital inclination
- 4.872415415829967
- periapsis
- 2.053936419672481
- apoapsis
- 2.395030972260283
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.224483695966382
- mean anomaly
- 320.7340843719226
- longitude of ascending node
- 258.8910005951399
- argument of periapsis
- 224.1190577269819
- rotation period
- 18.242
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2461132.6768798223
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1249 Rutherfordia, provisional designation 1932 VB, is an elongated, stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in 1932, the asteroid was named after Rutherford, New Jersey a suburb of New York City, United States.
Discovery
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1249 Rutherfordia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.