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. van Gent
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs. , (Leiden Southern Station)
- Discovery date
- 5 May 1935
- Named after
- Ejnar Hertzsprung , (chemist, astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1935 LA · 1930 HG, 1944 HA · 1950 VM
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( central )
- Observation arc
- 81.90 yr (29,914 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5603 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0306 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7955 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.67 yr (1,707 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 164.16 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 39.24 / day
- Inclination
- 11.942°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 69.989°
- Argument of perihelion
- 234.93°
- Dimensions
- 30.95 ± 8.64 , 35.27 ± 0.47 km , 37.772 ± 0.320 , 38.67 ± 1.5 km ( IRAS :5) , 39 ± 4 km , 40.396 ± 0.972 km , 41.97 ± 3.65
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.825 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Ejnar Hertzsprung
- Followed by
- Q142458
- Follows
- 1692 Subbotina
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 37.772
- Orbital period
- 1708.942546752923
- Image
- 001693-asteroid shape model (1693) Hertzsprung.png
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Hendrik van Gent
- provisional designation
- 1950 VM
- time of discovery or invention
- 1935-05-05
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2722185539896378
- absolute magnitude
- 11.28
- orbital inclination
- 11.934206962801
- periapsis
- 2.035887002898756
- apoapsis
- 3.558888775075032
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.797387888986894
- mean anomaly
- 76.51826319152386
- longitude of ascending node
- 69.95380357688498
- argument of periapsis
- 234.8305085633459
- albedo
- 0.051
- rotation period
- 8.825
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460637.264028481
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1693 Hertzsprung (prov. designation: 1935 LA) is a dark and elongated background asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 39 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 May 1935, by Dutch astronomer Hendrik van Gent at the Leiden Southern Station, annex to the Johannesburg Observatory in South Africa.
Classification and orbit
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q142457” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.