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
- 4 October 1907
- Alternative designations
- 1907 AM
- Observation arc
- 108.51 yr (39635 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9093 AU (435.23 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.0076 AU (300.33 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.4584 AU (367.77 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.85 yr (1408.0 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 84.6795 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 20.484 / day
- Inclination
- 2.5576°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 215.571°
- Argument of perihelion
- 178.366°
- Synodic rotation period
- 16.582 h (0.6909 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 18.609
- Orbital period
- 1407.849997041077
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A907 TL
- time of discovery or invention
- 1907-10-04
- orbital inclination
- 2.564744844580222
- albedo
- 0.027
- rotation period
- 16.582
- absolute magnitude
- 12.64
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1841707600554602
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.458321266995013
- periapsis
- 2.005570370792039
- apoapsis
- 2.911072163197987
- longitude of ascending node
- 215.4940354636342
- argument of periapsis
- 178.7583659239142
- mean anomaly
- 233.7356607987327
- time of periapsis
- 2461494.281248808
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
650 Amalasuntha is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by German astronomer August Kopff on October 4, 1907, at Heidelberg. It was named after Amalasuntha, the queen of the Ostrogoths from 526 to 534 AD. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid's provisional designation 1907 AM.
Photometric observations of this asteroid during 2007 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, were used to create a light curve plot. This showed a rotation period of 16.582 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.44 ± 0.03 magnitude during each cycle.