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
Small body data
(3184) Raab
- Orbit class
- Main-belt
- Semi-major axis
- 2.664 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.264
- Inclination
- 8.206 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 12.470 H
via Minor Planet Center
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Herbert Raab
- Followed by
- 3185 Clintford
- Follows
- 3183 Franzkaiser
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 19.28
- Orbital period
- 1588.870166631319
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Ernest Leonard Johnson
- site of astronomical discovery
- Union Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1980 WF1
- time of discovery or invention
- 1949-08-22
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2639705913166357
- orbital inclination
- 8.205890015068682
- periapsis
- 1.96135025585783
- apoapsis
- 3.368192919234491
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.664771587546161
- mean anomaly
- 182.252200275356
- longitude of ascending node
- 97.03097907279813
- argument of periapsis
- 238.16083391
- absolute magnitude
- 12.47
- albedo
- 0.047
- rotation period
- 274.944
- time of periapsis
- 2461784.9949337966
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
Article · Deutsch
(3184) Raab ist ein Asteroid des mittleren Hauptgürtels, der am 22. August 1949 vom südafrikanischen Astronomen Ernest Leonard Johnson, vom Union-Observatorium (IAU-Code 078) in Johannesburg aus, entdeckt wurde. Der Asteroid wurde im Mai 1996 auf Vorschlag von Brian Marsden und Gareth Vaughan Williams nach Herbert Raab (* 1969) benannt, einem österreichischen Software-Techniker, Amateurastronomen und Entwickler der Software Astrometrica. Aus Beobachtungen mit dem Weltraumteleskop WISE wurde der Durchmesser des Asteroiden zu 19,3 Kilometer bestimmt, die Albedo zu 0,05. Aufgrund der niedrigen Albedo kann eine Zugehörigkeit zu den Asteroiden des C-Typs angenommen werden.
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA