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
- August Kopff
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 11 September 1907
- Alternative designations
- 1907 AE
- Observation arc
- 108.44 yr (39606 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.8302 AU (572.99 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.5847 AU (386.67 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.2075 AU (479.84 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.74 yr (2098.2 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 327.76 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 17.688 / day
- Inclination
- 9.8005°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 291.226°
- Argument of perihelion
- 178.170°
- Mean radius
- 34.135 ± 0.8 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 9.263 h (0.3860 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.0509 ± 0.002
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 68.27
- Orbital period
- 2087.047162017685
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A907 RN
- time of discovery or invention
- 1907-09-11
- orbital inclination
- 9.876191309235924
- albedo
- 0.0509
- rotation period
- 9.263
- absolute magnitude
- 9.57
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2030638944310487
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.196116178669077
- periapsis
- 2.547100380374453
- apoapsis
- 3.845131976963702
- longitude of ascending node
- 290.7703256357395
- argument of periapsis
- 180.9889831635288
- mean anomaly
- 189.8012843615164
- time of periapsis
- 2461987.2020734786
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
648 Pippa is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. Photometric measurements made from the Oakley Southern Sky Observatory during 2012 gave a light curve with a period of 9.263 ± 0.001 hours and a variation in brightness of 0.31 ± 0.03 in magnitude. This is inconsistent with a period estimate of 5.2 ± 0.3 made in 2004. It was named after Pippa, the title character in Gerhardt Hauptmann's novel Und Pippa tanzt.
References