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
- M. Itzigsohn
- Discovery site
- La Plata Obs.
- Discovery date
- 23 September 1952
- Named after
- Lake Titicaca
- Alternative designations
- 1952 SP 1 · 1963 UR
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Eos
- Observation arc
- 64.61 yr (23,599 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2256 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8124 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0190 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.25 yr (1,916 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 55.926 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 16.44 / day
- Inclination
- 10.972°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 77.603°
- Argument of perihelion
- 9.4673°
- Dimensions
- 19.31 ± 0.41 km , 19.72 ± 1.19 km , 21.957 ± 0.296 , 23.08 km (derived) , 23.18 ± 2.4 km , 24.772 ± 0.106 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 3.2106 ± 0.0005 h , 3.211 233 ± 0.000 001 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 21.957
- Orbital period
- 1915.702306213797
- Image
- 001801-asteroid shape model (1801) Titicaca.png
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1963 UR
- time of discovery or invention
- 1952-09-23
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.07106343877512282
- albedo
- 0.172
- orbital inclination
- 10.96804771417921
- periapsis
- 2.804179346999916
- apoapsis
- 3.23321753035494
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.018698438677428
- mean anomaly
- 254.4086645189149
- longitude of ascending node
- 77.50873241627798
- argument of periapsis
- 14.23204770016011
- absolute magnitude
- 11.31
- rotation period
- 3.2106
- time of periapsis
- 2461562.393235826
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1801 Titicaca (prov. designation: 1952 SP1) is a stony Eos asteroid from the asteroid belt, approximately 22 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 23 September 1952, by Argentine astronomer Miguel Itzigsohn at La Plata Observatory in the capital of the province of Buenos Aires. It was named after Lake Titicaca in South America.
Orbit and classification