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
- R. S. Dunbar
- Discovery date
- 12 September 1983
- Pronunciation
- / v ɪ ˈ r iː n i ə /
- Alternative designations
- MPO 337280
- Minor planet category
- Mars crosser Amor II
- Observation arc
- 11898 days (32.57 yr)
- Aphelion
- 3.11250 AU (465,623,000 km )
- Perihelion
- 1.07179 AU (160,338,000 km)
- Semi major axis
- 2.09214 AU (312,980,000 km)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.03 yr (1105.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 241.121 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 19 32.516 / day
- Inclination
- 9.51540°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 173.840°
- Argument of perihelion
- 193.241°
- Earth moid
- 0.0719179 AU (10,758,760 km)
- Dimensions
- 0.9 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 4.930 h (0.2054 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 0.9
- Orbital period
- 1105.930233715212
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1983 RD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1983-09-12
- orbital inclination
- 9.506683378073387
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.4868088692394253
- albedo
- 0.37
- absolute magnitude
- 16.72
- longitude of ascending node
- 173.7717449419969
- argument of periapsis
- 193.3011570284209
- periapsis
- 1.074068577926362
- apoapsis
- 3.111773746879753
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.092921162403058
- mean anomaly
- 333.2985424950675
- rotation period
- 4.93
- time of periapsis
- 2461082.5276364973
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
3551 Verenia, provisional designation 1983 RD, is an Amor asteroid and a Mars crosser discovered on 12 September 1983 by R. Scott Dunbar. Although Verenia passed within 0.27 AU (40×10^ km) of the Earth in the 20th century, it will never do so in the 21st. In 2028, it will come within 0.025 AU (3.7×10^ km) of Ceres.
3551 Verenia was named for the first vestal virgin consecrated by the legendary Roman king Numa Pompilius.