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
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 October 1900
- Named after
- Signy , Norse mythology
- Alternative designations
- 1900 FM
- Minor planet category
- main belt · ( middle ) , background
- Observation arc
- 116.70 yr (42,624 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.1716 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0727 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6222 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.25 yr (1,551 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 182.92 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 55.56 / day
- Inclination
- 10.302°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 29.497°
- Argument of perihelion
- 19.410°
- Dimensions
- 29.32 ± 2.4 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 5.5362 h (0.23068 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Signy
- Followed by
- 460 Scania
- Follows
- 458 Hercynia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 25.784
- Orbital period
- 1548.587658370056
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A900 UH
- time of discovery or invention
- 1900-10-22
- albedo
- 0.221
- rotation period
- 5.5362
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 10.37
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2111666236925719
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.619539257061304
- periapsis
- 2.06637999651752
- apoapsis
- 3.172698517605088
- orbital inclination
- 10.29836177390122
- longitude of ascending node
- 29.46008542333793
- argument of periapsis
- 19.26667132627449
- mean anomaly
- 160.3778113793245
- time of periapsis
- 2460310.6136128376
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
459 Signe, provisional designation 1900 FM, is a stony asteroid from the background population of the intermediate asteroid belt, approximately 26 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 22 October 1900. The asteroid was presumably named after Signy, a character of the Scandinavian Völsunga saga and Norse mythology. Signy is the daughter of Völsung and sister of Sigmund.
References
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “459 Signe” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.