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
- S. Arend
- Discovery site
- Uccle Obs.
- Discovery date
- 8 January 1954
- Named after
- Arlon ( Municipality of Belgium )
- Alternative designations
- 1954 AC · 1930 YU, 1941 BJ · 1946 UB, 1951 GQ · 1954 CE, 1977 FQ 3 · 1978 PC 5 , A915 CC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 85.66 yr (31,289 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.4797 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9111 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.1954 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.25 yr (1,188 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 224.11 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 18 10.8 / day
- Inclination
- 6.1881°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 340.49°
- Argument of perihelion
- 115.91°
- Known satellites
- 1 ( D : 4 km · P : 18.2 h )
- Dimensions
- 8.484 ± 0.183 , 8.57 ± 0.58 km , 8.87 ± 0.74 km , 9.128 ± 0.166 km , 9.15 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 8.484
- Orbital period
- 1188.143132156202
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A915 CC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1954-01-08
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1292583187013897
- orbital inclination
- 6.192026659711983
- periapsis
- 1.911625833211817
- apoapsis
- 2.479173124203081
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.195399478707449
- mean anomaly
- 52.55153775569757
- longitude of ascending node
- 340.380326431637
- argument of periapsis
- 116.2561323271165
- absolute magnitude
- 12.41
- albedo
- 0.287
- rotation period
- 5.1484
- time of periapsis
- 2460827.059031476
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1717 Arlon, provisional designation 1954 AC, is a binary Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8.5 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 8 January 1954, by Belgian astronomer Sylvain Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle, Belgium, and later named for the Belgian town and provincial capital, Arlon.