File:364_Isara.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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. Charlois
- Discovery site
- Nice Obs.
- Discovery date
- 19 March 1893
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ɪ s ə r ə /
- Named after
- Isère River , ( river in France)
- Alternative designations
- 1893 T · 1976 AB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora
- Observation arc
- 117.10 yr (42,772 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5532 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8881 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2206 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.31 yr (1,209 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 322.26 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 52.08 / day
- Inclination
- 6.0033°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 105.54°
- Argument of perihelion
- 312.78°
- Dimensions
- 25.901 ± 0.665 km , 27.99 ± 1.0 km , 28.78 ± 0.30 km , 35.209 ± 0.253 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Isère
- Followed by
- Q151951
- Follows
- Q151925
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 25.901
- Orbital period
- 1208.367327593292
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Auguste Charlois
- site of astronomical discovery
- Nice Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1976 AB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1893-03-19
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- albedo
- 0.3
- rotation period
- 9.156
- absolute magnitude
- 9.92
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1492099883479565
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.220242260411099
- periapsis
- 1.888959938605518
- apoapsis
- 2.551524582216679
- orbital inclination
- 6.006173229346184
- longitude of ascending node
- 105.5019227472186
- argument of periapsis
- 312.9793378447602
- mean anomaly
- 135.5360187423468
- time of periapsis
- 2460545.5630645547
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
364 Isara is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 27 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 19 March 1893, by French astronomer Auguste Charlois at the Nice Observatory in southeast France. The asteroid was named after the Isère River in France.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q151927” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.