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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 9 March 1943
- Named after
- Heike Neckel (granddaughter of astronomer Alfred Bohrmann )
- Alternative designations
- 1943 EY · 1934 LC, 1935 TD · 1938 FC, 1938 GB · 1950 NR 1 , 1951 WW · 1960 ME, 1961 TU 1 · 1966 QJ, 1971 QY 1 · A906 FA, A924 PB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Eos
- Observation arc
- 111.22 yr (40,623 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3482 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6793 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0137 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.23 yr (1,911 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 249.18 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 18.24 / day
- Inclination
- 10.776°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 155.63°
- Argument of perihelion
- 211.36°
- Dimensions
- 20.50 ± 0.79 km , 22.378 ± 0.235 , 23.485 ± 0.161 km , 24.06 ± 4.2 km , 24.17 km (derived) , 24.31 ± 1.45 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 3.90 h , 4.742 ± 0.013 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 1733 Silke
- Follows
- 1731 Smuts
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 22.378
- Orbital period
- 1912.67150562325
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A924 PB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1943-03-09
- orbital inclination
- 10.78576998337317
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.114212803750631
- albedo
- 0.128
- periapsis
- 2.671103434730501
- apoapsis
- 3.359923985942501
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.015513710336501
- mean anomaly
- 93.29019462995839
- longitude of ascending node
- 155.4544452327759
- argument of periapsis
- 212.652002743136
- absolute magnitude
- 11.01
- rotation period
- 4.742
- time of periapsis
- 2460504.851397159
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1732 Heike, provisional designation 1943 EY, is a stony Eoan asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 24 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 9 March 1943, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany, and named after Heike Neckel, the granddaughter of astronomer Alfred Bohrmann.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1732 Heike” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.