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
- M. F. Wolf , A. Schwassmann
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 21 September 1900
- Pronunciation
- / h ər ˈ s ɪ n i ə /
- Named after
- Hercynian Forest , (ancient European forest)
- Alternative designations
- 1900 FK · 1947 XB, 2016 FW 5 · A902 CA, A915 PD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 116.79 yr (42,656 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.7176 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2784 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.9980 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.19 yr (1,896 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 178.41 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 23.64 / day
- Inclination
- 12.640°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 134.26°
- Argument of perihelion
- 276.79°
- Dimensions
- 33.70 ± 7.94 km , 36.10 ± 0.85 km , 36.698 ± 0.408 km , 38.57 km (derived) , 38.75 ± 1.0 km , 41.410 ± 1.172 km , 42.27 ± 0.92 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 36.698
- Orbital period
- 1891.201605129762
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A900 SD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1900-09-21
- albedo
- 0.191
- rotation period
- 21.806
- absolute magnitude
- 9.77
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2437794292137891
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.992905014858296
- periapsis
- 2.263296338645054
- apoapsis
- 3.722513691071539
- orbital inclination
- 12.65959027329511
- longitude of ascending node
- 134.09261752
- argument of periapsis
- 277.3552599969796
- mean anomaly
- 28.93146221985629
- time of periapsis
- 2460848.513256142
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
458 Hercynia, provisional designation 1900 FK, is a background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 38 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 21 September 1900, by astronomers Max Wolf and Arnold Schwassmann at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named for the ancient Hercynian Forest, known to the Romans as "Hercynia silva".
Orbit and classification