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
- 7 January 1896
- Alternative designations
- 1896 CK
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 117.65 yr (42970 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8841 AU (431.46 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.64290 AU (395.372 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.7635 AU (413.41 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.59 yr (1,678.0 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 1.07289 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 52.344 / day
- Inclination
- 13.767°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 106.47°
- Argument of perihelion
- 91.701°
- Dimensions
- 96.056 ± 0.424 km
- Mass
- (1.843 ± 0.850/0.441) × 10 kg
- Mean density
- 3.422 ± 1.578/0.819 g/cm
- Synodic rotation period
- 19.635 h (0.8181 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 413 Edburga
- Follows
- 411 Xanthe
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 96.056
- Orbital period
- 1677.030978840936
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1953 NM
- time of discovery or invention
- 1896-01-07
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 13.78017285037327
- albedo
- 0.044
- rotation period
- 19.635
- Commons category
- 412 Elisabetha
- absolute magnitude
- 9.14
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.04116207399702818
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.76245432173486
- periapsis
- 2.648745972530199
- apoapsis
- 2.87616267093952
- longitude of ascending node
- 106.2303721923344
- argument of periapsis
- 96.74288830170703
- mean anomaly
- 5.761116770438127
- time of periapsis
- 2460973.6623019534
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
412 Elisabetha is a large main belt asteroid that was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 7 January 1896 in Heidelberg. It may have been named after his mother, Elise Wolf (née Helwerth). This minor planet is orbiting at a distance of 2.76 AU from the Sun with a period of 4.59 years and an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.044. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 13.8° to the plane of the ecliptic.
This asteroid is rotating with a period of 19.65618±0.00004 h. Shape models and stellar occultations provide an estimated diameter of 97+7 −14 km. Older diameter estimates range from 76.38±2.114 to 111.12±22.22 km.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “412 Elisabetha” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.