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
- E. Delporte
- Discovery site
- Uccle Obs.
- Discovery date
- 24 October 1933
- Named after
- Antwerp (Belgian city)
- Alternative designations
- 1933 UB 1 · 1930 AF, 1932 LC · 1964 VA 2 , 1964 XF · A917 DB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) background
- Observation arc
- 99.63 yr (36,391 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3156 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0572 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6864 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.40 yr (1,608 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 16.166 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 25.68 / day
- Inclination
- 8.7271°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 81.133°
- Argument of perihelion
- 313.22°
- Mean diameter
- 27.82 ± 7.33 km , 34.71 ± 3.0 km , 34.80 ± 0.66 km , 37.199 ± 0.134 km , 40.717 ± 0.350 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 6.63 ± 0.01 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Antwerp
- Followed by
- 1295 Deflotte
- Follows
- 1293 Sonja
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 37.199
- Orbital period
- 1609.958716645066
- Image
- 001294-asteroid shape model (1294) Antwerpia.png
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Eugène Joseph Delporte
- site of astronomical discovery
- Royal Observatory of Belgium
- provisional designation
- A917 DB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1933-10-24
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2314902579263452
- orbital inclination
- 8.716618646404523
- periapsis
- 2.065983835276135
- apoapsis
- 3.31061381123263
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.688298823254383
- mean anomaly
- 327.1935975264783
- longitude of ascending node
- 81.06306292642961
- argument of periapsis
- 313.219594327109
- absolute magnitude
- 10.67
- albedo
- 0.117
- rotation period
- 6.63
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2461147.213760067
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1294 Antwerpia (prov. designation: 1933 UB1) is a dark background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 24 October 1933, by astronomer Eugène Delporte at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 6.6 hours and measures approximately 35 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter. It was named for the Belgian city of Antwerp.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1294 Antwerpia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.