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
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ s k eɪ i ə /
- Named after
- Scania (Skåne), (Province of Sweden)
- Alternative designations
- A900 UF · 1900 FN
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) background · slow
- Observation arc
- 119.27 yr (43,564 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.0059 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.4304 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7182 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.48 yr (1,637 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 266.57 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 11.64 / day
- Inclination
- 4.6346°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 205.20°
- Argument of perihelion
- 161.66°
- Mean diameter
- 19.689 ± 0.146 km 21.78 ± 1.9 km 23.58 ± 0.51 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Scania
- Followed by
- 461 Saskia
- Follows
- 459 Signe
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 19.689
- Orbital period
- 1636.482459896228
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A900 UF
- time of discovery or invention
- 1900-10-22
- albedo
- 0.262
- rotation period
- 164.1
- asteroid spectral type
- K-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 10.75
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1036569056805996
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.717744456934554
- periapsis
- 2.436031476098116
- apoapsis
- 2.999457437770991
- orbital inclination
- 4.636734686509794
- longitude of ascending node
- 205.0557319768158
- argument of periapsis
- 161.9501449843708
- mean anomaly
- 346.2243246028249
- time of periapsis
- 2461063.121253224
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
460 Scania (/ˈskeɪiə/; prov. designation: A900 UF or 1900 FN) is a background asteroid and a slow rotator from the central regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 22 October 1900. The uncommon K-type asteroid has an exceptionally long rotation period of 164.1 hours and measures approximately 21 kilometers (13 miles) in diameter. It was named after the Swedish region of Scania, where a meeting was held by the Astronomische Gesellschaft in 1904.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “460 Scania” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.