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
- German: [ ˈzaski.aː ]
- Named after
- Saskia van Uylenburgh , (wife of Rembrandt)
- Alternative designations
- 1900 FP · 1935 CT, A917 XE · A924 DB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Themis
- Observation arc
- 117.58 yr (42,946 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5621 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6834 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1227 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.52 yr (2,016 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 71.934 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 42.96 / day
- Inclination
- 1.4634°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 157.03°
- Argument of perihelion
- 305.17°
- Mean diameter
- 39.81 ± 13.20 km , 43.10 ± 1.05 km , 43.603 ± 0.256 km , 44.1 ± 4.4 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 43.603
- Orbital period
- 2010.960768698693
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A900 UG
- time of discovery or invention
- 1900-10-22
- albedo
- 0.057
- rotation period
- 7.348
- absolute magnitude
- 10.49
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1457936512744419
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.117956947433755
- periapsis
- 2.663378619550874
- apoapsis
- 3.572535275316635
- orbital inclination
- 1.47216478341275
- longitude of ascending node
- 156.5011685961819
- argument of periapsis
- 308.8686290575304
- mean anomaly
- 208.95725774416
- time of periapsis
- 2461844.225080759
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
461 Saskia, provisional designation 1900 FP, is a Themistian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 44 kilometers (27 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 22 October 1900, by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The X-type asteroid has a rotation period of 7.3 hours. It was named after Rembrandt's wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh.
Orbit and classification