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
- H. E. Wood
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 4 August 1926
- Named after
- Willem van den Bos , (astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1926 PE · 1928 DD, 1936 OM · 1948 BE, 1948 EG 1 · 1949 KE, 1950 XD · 1963 SC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 88.62 yr (32,370 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.6437 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8357 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2397 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.35 yr (1,224 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 33.128 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 38.76 / day
- Inclination
- 5.3617°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 83.196°
- Argument of perihelion
- 275.24°
- Dimensions
- 7.58 ± 0.67 km , 11.697 ± 0.048 km , 12.25 km (derived) , 13.537 ± 0.339 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 155 ± 5 h (wrong) , 740 ± 10 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Willem Hendrik van den Bos
- Followed by
- 1664 Felix
- Follows
- 1662 Hoffmann
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 13.537
- Orbital period
- 1223.769637149766
- Image
- 001663-asteroid shape model (1663) van den Bos.png
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Harry Edwin Wood
- site of astronomical discovery
- Union Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1963 SC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1926-08-04
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1804083579691244
- albedo
- 0.255
- orbital inclination
- 5.361440679836957
- periapsis
- 1.835122326008874
- apoapsis
- 2.643015887947537
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.239069106978206
- mean anomaly
- 195.4214969377294
- longitude of ascending node
- 83.16830274011768
- argument of periapsis
- 275.0912204229111
- absolute magnitude
- 12.02
- rotation period
- 740.0
- time of periapsis
- 2461559.9615971535
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1663 van den Bos, provisional designation 1926 PE, is a stony Florian asteroid and an exceptionally slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 August 1926, by English astronomer Harry Edwin Wood at Johannesburg Observatory in South Africa. It was later named after astronomer Willem Hendrik van den Bos.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1663 van den Bos” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.