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
Small body data
(4792) Lykaon
- Orbit class
- Jupiter Trojan
- Semi-major axis
- 5.243 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.091
- Inclination
- 9.343 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 10.190 H
via Minor Planet Center
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Lycaon
- Followed by
- 4793 Slessor
- Follows
- 4791 Iphidamas
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 50.87
- Orbital period
- 4387.106881539749
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Carolyn S. Shoemaker
- site of astronomical discovery
- Palomar Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1989 UN9
- time of discovery or invention
- 1988-09-10
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09142443498589148
- orbital inclination
- 9.34187320699559
- periapsis
- 4.765197570114947
- apoapsis
- 5.724183288462187
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 5.244690429288567
- mean anomaly
- 43.25478498184127
- longitude of ascending node
- 61.90345249735077
- argument of periapsis
- 284.391923140574
- absolute magnitude
- 10.18
- albedo
- 0.068
- rotation period
- 40.09
- time of periapsis
- 2460473.379542074
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
Article · Deutsch
(4792) Lykaon ist ein Asteroid aus der Gruppe der Jupiter-Trojaner. Damit werden Asteroiden bezeichnet, die auf den Lagrange-Punkten auf der Bahn des Jupiter um die Sonne laufen. (4792) Lykaon wurde am 10. September 1988 von der US-amerikanischen Astronomin Carolyn Shoemaker entdeckt. Er ist dem Lagrangepunkt L5 zugeordnet. Benannt ist der Asteroid nach Lykaon, dem Sohn des Königs Priamos von Troja.
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA