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
- L. Oterma
- Discovery site
- Turku Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 February 1942
- Named after
- Per Brahe the Younger , (Count and Governor)
- Alternative designations
- 1942 CH · 1934 PP, 1937 AA · 1937 AY, 1938 JA · 1943 PC, 1949 XL · 1952 OG, 1953 VD 1 · 1960 FF, A902 JA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , background
- Observation arc
- 117.28 yr (42,838 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2227 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2278 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7252 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.50 yr (1,643 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 349.62 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 8.76 / day
- Inclination
- 4.2614°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 83.344°
- Argument of perihelion
- 158.68°
- Mean diameter
- 13.960 ± 0.125 km , 14.20 ± 0.8 km , 14.848 ± 0.130 km , 15.45 ± 1.32 km , 18.29 ± 0.70 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 3.426 ± 0.002 h , 3.428 ± 0.002 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Per Brahe the Younger
- Followed by
- 1681 Steinmetz
- Follows
- 1679 Nevanlinna
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 13.96
- Orbital period
- 1642.567782841224
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Liisi Oterma
- site of astronomical discovery
- Iso-Heikkilä Observatory
- provisional designation
- A902 JA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1942-02-12
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1816110466764364
- orbital inclination
- 4.259897845306388
- periapsis
- 2.229682409446172
- apoapsis
- 3.219272883489289
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.72447764646773
- mean anomaly
- 156.2062152645884
- longitude of ascending node
- 83.32587610791865
- argument of periapsis
- 158.007629577489
- absolute magnitude
- 11.22
- albedo
- 0.3
- rotation period
- 3.428
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460287.779731463
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1680 Per Brahe, provisional designation 1942 CH, is a bright background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 14 kilometers (9 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 12 February 1942, by Finnish astronomer Liisi Oterma at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland. The stony S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 3.4 hours. It is named after Swedish count and governor Per Brahe the Younger.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1680 Per Brahe” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.