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
- Indiana University , ( Indiana Asteroid Program )
- Discovery site
- Goethe Link Obs.
- Discovery date
- 7 September 1962
- Named after
- Vesto Slipher and , Earl C. Slipher
- Alternative designations
- 1962 RF · 1953 UR, 1980 RH 5
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Padua
- Observation arc
- 63.04 yr (23,027 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.9919 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5066 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7493 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.56 yr (1,665 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 23.827 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 58.32 / day
- Inclination
- 5.2283°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 188.66°
- Argument of perihelion
- 171.68°
- Dimensions
- 14.37 ± 3.73 km , 14.74 ± 5.05 km , 18.959 ± 0.211 km , 19.099 ± 0.218 km , 20.21 km (calculated) , 20.29 ± 1.06 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 7.677 ± 0.0145 h (S) , 7.693 ± 0.0145 h (R)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Q312248
- Followed by
- Q143440
- Follows
- Q143415
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 19.099
- Orbital period
- 1665.567409280876
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Indiana Asteroid Program
- site of astronomical discovery
- Goethe Link Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1980 RH5
- time of discovery or invention
- 1962-09-07
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.0864890579781058
- orbital inclination
- 5.233549136389748
- periapsis
- 2.512019146711823
- apoapsis
- 2.987683223906562
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.749851185309192
- mean anomaly
- 313.913969894077
- longitude of ascending node
- 188.5444050610474
- argument of periapsis
- 170.3456663584299
- absolute magnitude
- 12.46
- albedo
- 0.058
- rotation period
- 7.677
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2461213.720527132
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1766 Slipher, provisional designation 1962 RF, is a Paduan asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 18 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 7 September 1962, by astronomers of the Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory in Indiana, United States. The asteroid was named after American astronomers Vesto Slipher and his brother Earl C. Slipher.
Classification and orbit
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q143437” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.