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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery date
- 1 March 1894
- Named after
- Ilmatar
- Alternative designations
- 1894 AX
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 122.12 yr (44604 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.19998 AU (478.710 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.50226 AU (374.333 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.85112 AU (426.521 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.81 yr (1758.4 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 166.647 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 17.024 / day
- Inclination
- 13.5514°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 345.021°
- Argument of perihelion
- 187.911°
- Mean diameter
- 83.857 ± 0.576 km
- Mass
- (1.039 ± 0.515/0.201) × 10 kg
- Mean density
- 3.136 ± 1.555/0.607 g/cm
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Ilmatar
- Followed by
- 386 Siegena
- Follows
- Q152248
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 85.837
- Orbital period
- 1755.166707842953
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A918 CC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1894-03-01
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 13.58186455569676
- albedo
- 0.242
- rotation period
- 62.35
- absolute magnitude
- 7.81
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1269206322751501
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.847606422670516
- periapsis
- 2.486186415034396
- apoapsis
- 3.209026430306637
- longitude of ascending node
- 344.8344733371801
- argument of periapsis
- 189.1031603246548
- mean anomaly
- 142.1328189916541
- time of periapsis
- 2460307.5366889276
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
385 Ilmatar is a large main belt asteroid.
It was discovered by Max Wolf on March 1, 1894, in Heidelberg. It was named after Ilmatar, virgin spirit of the air from the Finnish epic Kalevala. Its mass has been estimated as (1.039 ± 0.515/0.201)×10 kg. Its rotation is 62.35 hr.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q152257” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.