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
- P. Wild
- Discovery site
- Zimmerwald Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 October 1972
- Named after
- Susi Petit–Pierre, (friend of discoverer)
- Alternative designations
- 1972 UB · 1943 EU, 1953 AA · 1959 GJ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Eos
- Observation arc
- 64.40 yr (23,521 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.1714 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8587 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0150 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.24 yr (1,912 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 70.711 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 17.88 / day
- Inclination
- 11.788°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 99.365°
- Argument of perihelion
- 73.564°
- Dimensions
- 19.022 ± 0.232 km , 22.41 km (calculated) , 26.800 ± 0.321 km
- Geometric albedo
- 0.118 ± 0.011 , 0.14 (assumed) , 0.2358 ± 0.0545
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 26.8
- Orbital period
- 1914.235734380032
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1972 UB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1972-10-30
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.05045197077482827
- orbital inclination
- 11.79095966791497
- periapsis
- 2.864936046050834
- apoapsis
- 3.169379139435071
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.017157592742953
- mean anomaly
- 279.1661859005643
- longitude of ascending node
- 99.33379549619171
- argument of periapsis
- 69.98853111217133
- absolute magnitude
- 11.1
- albedo
- 0.118
- rotation period
- 5.423
- time of periapsis
- 2461430.319376376
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1844 Susilva, provisional designation 1972 UB, is a stony Eoan asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 22 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 30 October 1972, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland, and later named after a schoolfriend of the discoverer.
Classification and orbit