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
- 13 October 1895
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ f eɪ m ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1895 CD
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 109.59 yr (40029 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6216 AU (541.78 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.71757 AU (406.543 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.1696 AU (474.17 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.64 yr (2061.1 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 148.91 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 28.776 / day
- Inclination
- 9.0794°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 297.250°
- Argument of perihelion
- 108.505°
- Dimensions
- 40.81 ± 2.1 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 202.1 h (8.42 d ) , 12.19 h
- Geometric albedo
- 0.1681 ± 0.019
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Pheme
- Followed by
- 409 Aspasia
- Follows
- 407 Arachne
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 35.62
- Orbital period
- 2056.248991284443
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A917 RB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1895-10-13
- orbital inclination
- 9.089898740371877
- albedo
- 0.221
- rotation period
- 202.1
- absolute magnitude
- 9.37
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1468631476755204
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.164595335289308
- periapsis
- 2.699832903229451
- apoapsis
- 3.629357767349164
- longitude of ascending node
- 297.0861054642406
- argument of periapsis
- 108.9698420734945
- mean anomaly
- 23.69451753695578
- time of periapsis
- 2460865.161589488
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
408 Fama is a typical main belt asteroid in orbit around the Sun. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 13 October 1895 in Heidelberg.
Photometric observations at the Oakley Observatory in Terre Haute, Indiana, during 2007 were used to build a light curve for this asteroid. The asteroid displayed a rotation period of 12.19 ± 0.02 hours and a brightness variation of 0.15 ± 0.03 in magnitude.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q152635” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.