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
- Discovery site
- Perth Obs. (Bickley)
- Discovery date
- 13 June 1971
- Named after
- Derice Harwood, (wife of astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1971 LC · 1927 EB, 1942 TD · 1949 YD, 1967 EB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 67.44 yr (24,634 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.4750 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9990 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2370 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.35 yr (1,222 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 74.051 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 40.56 / day
- Inclination
- 3.8406°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 271.10°
- Argument of perihelion
- 193.78°
- Dimensions
- 7.976 ± 0.759 , 10.14 ± 0.41 km , 10.697 ± 0.061 km , 10.7 km (derived)
- Synodic rotation period
- 3.223 52 ± 0.000 04 h , 3.2236 ± 0.0005 h , 3.2237 ± 0.0001 h , 3.2240 ± 0.0005 h , 3.4602 ± 0.0007 h
- Geometric albedo
- 0.035 ± 0.149 , 0.2149 , 0.2474 ± 0.0669 , 0.282 ± 0.025
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q144055
- Follows
- Q144031
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 7.976
- Orbital period
- 1221.928662801298
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Perth Observatory
- site of astronomical discovery
- Perth Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1971 LC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1971-06-13
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1060659492444796
- orbital inclination
- 3.8430111125478
- periapsis
- 1.999572232209112
- apoapsis
- 2.47407373869701
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.236822985453061
- mean anomaly
- 237.9463283391149
- longitude of ascending node
- 270.9451614080448
- argument of periapsis
- 193.8574869417372
- absolute magnitude
- 12.09
- albedo
- 0.035
- rotation period
- 3.224
- time of periapsis
- 2461414.7802216737
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1806 Derice, provisional designation 1971 LC, is a stony Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. Discovered on 13 June 1971, at the Bickley site of the Perth Observatory in Western Australia, it was the first discovery of a minor planet ever made in Oceania. The asteroid was named after the wife of Dennis Harwood, staff member at Bickley.
Classification and orbit
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q144046” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.