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
- A. Bohrmann
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 24 February 1938
- Named after
- Johann Titius (astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1938 DX 1 · 1966 TF
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner )
- Observation arc
- 79.27 yr (28,955 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5750 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2643 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4196 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.76 yr (1,375 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 335.11 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 42.84 / day
- Inclination
- 7.6265°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 351.78°
- Argument of perihelion
- 246.70°
- Dimensions
- 10.79 km (calculated) , 14.24 ± 0.17 km , 14.782 ± 0.081 km , 15.98 ± 0.35 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 6.13 ± 0.01 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Johann Daniel Titius
- Followed by
- Q734327
- Follows
- 1997 Leverrier
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 14.242
- Orbital period
- 1374.27945687451
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Alfred Bohrmann
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1966 TF
- time of discovery or invention
- 1938-02-24
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.06506120635638839
- argument of periapsis
- 248.1100974150219
- absolute magnitude
- 12.23
- orbital inclination
- 7.616242025516581
- periapsis
- 2.261696185594748
- apoapsis
- 2.576473330894224
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.419084758244486
- mean anomaly
- 39.55156720122702
- longitude of ascending node
- 351.6749635244615
- albedo
- 0.126
- rotation period
- 6.13
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460849.5141491895
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1998 Titius, provisional designation 1938 DX1, is a metallic–carbonaceous asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 14 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 24 February 1938, by German astronomer Alfred Bohrmann at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. On the same night, the body was also observed at the Finnish Turku Observatory. It was later named after astronomer Johann Daniel Titius.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q146613” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.