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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 26 April 1884
- Pronunciation
- / h ɒ ˈ n ɔːr i ə /
- Named after
- Justa Grata Honoria
- Alternative designations
- A884 HA, 1904 PA, 1930 KK , 1953 GJ 1
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 131.97 yr (48201 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3307 AU (498.27 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.2651 AU (338.85 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.79787 AU (418.555 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.68 yr (1709.4 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 17.8 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 294.554 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 38.16 / day
- Inclination
- 7.6942°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 185.861°
- Argument of perihelion
- 174.872°
- Dimensions
- 86.20 ± 3.7 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 77.708
- Orbital period
- 1711.050064163299
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A884 HA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1884-04-26
- orbital inclination
- 7.697360769308899
- albedo
- 0.156
- rotation period
- 12.338
- Commons category
- 236 Honoria
- absolute magnitude
- 8.19
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1896686646428908
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.799687296338855
- periapsis
- 2.268674345424599
- apoapsis
- 3.33070024725311
- longitude of ascending node
- 185.7949997704283
- argument of periapsis
- 174.2841601787348
- mean anomaly
- 291.1044299900163
- time of periapsis
- 2461327.9549152395
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
236 Honoria is a large main belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on 26 April 1884 in Vienna. The asteroid was named after Honoria, granddaughter of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, who started negotiations with Attila the Hun. It is classified as a stony S-type asteroid based upon its spectrum. 236 Honoria is orbiting close to a 5:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter, which is located at 2.824 AU.
Polarimetric study of this asteroid reveals anomalous properties that suggests the regolith consists of a mixture of low and high albedo material. This may have been caused by fragmentation of an asteroid substrate with the spectral properties of CO3/CV3 carbonaceous chondrites.