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
- A. Kopff
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 January 1908
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ b iː ɡ əl /
- Named after
- HMS Beagle , (Darwin's ship)
- Alternative designations
- 1908 BU · 1917 Sed , 1954 HJ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Themis · Beagle
- Observation arc
- 109.90 yr (40,141 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5722 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7270 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1496 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.59 yr (2,042 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 201.29 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 34.68 / day
- Inclination
- 0.5165°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 184.28°
- Argument of perihelion
- 330.81°
- Mean diameter
- 62.60 ± 0.51 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- HMS Beagle
- Followed by
- 657 Gunlöd
- Follows
- 655 Briseïs
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 62.604
- Orbital period
- 2047.965564508629
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- August Kopff
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A908 BJ
- time of discovery or invention
- 1908-01-22
- orbital inclination
- 0.5181420109000919
- albedo
- 0.045
- rotation period
- 7.035
- absolute magnitude
- 10.05
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1301124795163116
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.156090747444722
- periapsis
- 2.745443954716201
- apoapsis
- 3.566737540173244
- longitude of ascending node
- 184.1583374477432
- argument of periapsis
- 329.2298370182047
- mean anomaly
- 336.314630331957
- time of periapsis
- 2461135.24117073
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
656 Beagle, provisional designation 1908 BU, is an asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 22 January 1908, by German astronomer August Kopff at the Heidelberg Observatory. It is the principal body and namesake of the small Beagle cluster located within the Themis family. The C-type asteroid is likely highly elongated and has a rotation period of 7.0 hours. It was named for Charles Darwin's ship, HMS Beagle.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q156230” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.