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
- E. Delporte
- Discovery site
- Uccle Obs.
- Discovery date
- 8 September 1932
- Named after
- Niece of astronomer Georges Roland
- Alternative designations
- 1932 RL · 1942 TC, 1950 BF 1 · 1955 QA 1 , A906 YJ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ), background
- Observation arc
- 111.83 yr (40,847 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.5989 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8390 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2189 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.31 yr (1,207 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 37.923 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 53.52 / day
- Inclination
- 4.0315°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 6.1128°
- Argument of perihelion
- 42.974°
- Mean diameter
- 7.459 ± 0.114 km , 7.578 ± 0.291 km , 7.62 ± 1.37 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 10 h (at least)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 1708 Pólit
- Follows
- Q142646
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 7.459
- Orbital period
- 1207.757017401025
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Eugène Joseph Delporte
- site of astronomical discovery
- Royal Observatory of Belgium
- provisional designation
- A906 YJ
- time of discovery or invention
- 1932-09-08
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1706622289391329
- absolute magnitude
- 12.61
- orbital inclination
- 4.031596146981259
- periapsis
- 1.84071071453384
- apoapsis
- 2.598278509794508
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.219494612164174
- mean anomaly
- 33.43275417504053
- longitude of ascending node
- 6.054505791627343
- argument of periapsis
- 43.03975682433079
- albedo
- 0.306
- rotation period
- 79.74
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460888.3371014833
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1707 Chantal, provisional designation 1932 RL, is a stony background asteroid from the Florian region in the inner asteroid belt, approximately 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 8 September 1932, by astronomer Eugène Delporte at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle. The S-type asteroid has a rotation period of at least 10 hours. It was named for Chantal, the niece of Belgian astronomer Georges Roland.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q142649” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.