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
Small body data
(1347) Patria
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 2.571 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.066
- Inclination
- 11.870 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 11.300 H
via Minor Planet Center
Key facts
- Discovered by
- G. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 6 November 1931
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ p æ t r i ə , ˈ p eɪ t r i ə /
- Named after
- Latin for fatherland
- Alternative designations
- 1931 VW · 1968 UK 1 , 1970 EY 2 · A898 VB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , background
- Observation arc
- 118.97 yr (43,455 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.7476 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3946 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5711 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.12 yr (1,506 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 272.77 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 20.76 / day
- Inclination
- 11.869°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 229.21°
- Argument of perihelion
- 201.70°
- Dimensions
- 30.72 ± 7.10 km , 31.813 ± 8.920 km , 32.33 ± 0.15 km , 32.40 ± 1.1 km , 32.48 km (derived) , 33.48 ± 0.49 km , 34.98 ± 10.26 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- fatherland
- Followed by
- 1348 Michel
- Follows
- 1346 Gotha
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 32.4
- Orbital period
- 1506.300278994925
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Grigory Neujmin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- A898 VB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1931-11-06
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.06643769101591229
- albedo
- 0.0386
- orbital inclination
- 11.8693661588476
- periapsis
- 2.400778331095332
- apoapsis
- 2.742484861926855
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.571631596511093
- mean anomaly
- 269.2893167717175
- longitude of ascending node
- 229.0415674274526
- argument of periapsis
- 202.2744695950477
- absolute magnitude
- 11.31
- rotation period
- 29.5
- time of periapsis
- 2461380.0486873738
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1347 Patria, provisional designation 1931 VW, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the background population of the central asteroid belt, approximately 32 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 November 1931, by Soviet astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named for the Latin word of fatherland.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1347 Patria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.