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
- 11 October 1937
- Named after
- Heinrich Vogt (astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1937 TE · 1953 UJ, 1957 HP · 1964 FC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Hilda
- Observation arc
- 79.07 yr (28,882 days)
- Aphelion
- 4.4750 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.5307 AU
- Semi major axis
- 4.0028 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 8.01 yr (2,925 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 250.93 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 7 23.16 / day
- Inclination
- 4.2034°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 35.575°
- Argument of perihelion
- 101.70°
- Jupiter moid
- 0.5988 AU
- Dimensions
- 47.79 km (derived) , 47.87 ± 4.0 km ( IRAS :3) , 50.542 ± 0.148 km , 52.86 ± 1.60 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 50.561
- Orbital period
- 2914.115411232931
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1964 FC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1937-10-11
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1171456256724622
- albedo
- 0.046
- orbital inclination
- 4.204423544829539
- periapsis
- 3.525017578301368
- apoapsis
- 4.460484177832178
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.992750878066773
- mean anomaly
- 286.6213578213251
- longitude of ascending node
- 35.54119009468533
- argument of periapsis
- 100.9196945557744
- absolute magnitude
- 10.65
- rotation period
- 12.898
- time of periapsis
- 2461594.482866745
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1439 Vogtia, provisional designation 1937 TE, is a dark Hildian asteroid from the outermost region of the asteroid belt, approximately 48 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 11 October 1937, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. It is named for astronomer Heinrich Vogt.
Description