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
- L. Chernykh
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 24 January 1968
- Named after
- Aleksandra Pakhmutova , (Russian composer)
- Alternative designations
- 1968 BE · 1942 JM, 1966 US · 1969 JM
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 50.53 yr (18,455 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.4349 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7452 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0901 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.43 yr (1,984 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 33.156 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 53.04 / day
- Inclination
- 13.183°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 55.153°
- Argument of perihelion
- 84.606°
- Dimensions
- 33.41 km (derived) , 33.53 ± 1.8 km , 35.24 ± 0.63 km , 35.45 ± 10.87 km , 37.47 ± 0.84 km , 37.68 ± 14.19 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 17.490 ± 0.004 h , 17.5157 ± 0.0005 h , 17.5226 ± 0.0113 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Aleksandra Pakhmutova
- Followed by
- Q145360
- Follows
- Q145325
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 35.243
- Orbital period
- 1980.39856105654
- Image
- 1889Pakhmutova (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Lyudmila Chernykh
- site of astronomical discovery
- Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1969 JM
- time of discovery or invention
- 1968-01-24
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1166440388690617
- orbital inclination
- 13.17911557150713
- periapsis
- 2.726288809564319
- apoapsis
- 3.446282451683345
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.086285630623832
- mean anomaly
- 218.7424565754538
- longitude of ascending node
- 55.07436482096207
- argument of periapsis
- 83.85069794061967
- absolute magnitude
- 11.32
- albedo
- 0.057
- rotation period
- 17.49
- time of periapsis
- 2461777.5728770453
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1889 Pakhmutova, provisional designation 1968 BE, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 35 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj on 24 January 1968. The asteroid was named after Russian composer Aleksandra Pakhmutova.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q145326” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.