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
- Joel Hastings Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Winchester, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 10 February 1913
- Pronunciation
- / k æ n ˈ t eɪ b i ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1913 QS
- Observation arc
- 103.10 yr (37,659 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3892 AU (507.02 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.7145 AU (406.08 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0519 AU (456.56 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.33 yr (1,947.4 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 133.938 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 5.532 / day
- Inclination
- 10.846°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 116.099°
- Argument of perihelion
- 47.844°
- Mean radius
- 45.45 ± 0.85 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 64.453 h (2.6855 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.0552 ± 0.002
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 90.9
- Orbital period
- 1950.565690532753
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A913 CK
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-02-10
- orbital inclination
- 10.82102230983086
- albedo
- 0.0552
- rotation period
- 64.453
- absolute magnitude
- 9.16
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1046709682792452
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.055212597144781
- periapsis
- 2.73542053630269
- apoapsis
- 3.375004657986873
- longitude of ascending node
- 115.4761716521776
- argument of periapsis
- 52.21509659986978
- mean anomaly
- 37.44299501125335
- time of periapsis
- 2460797.6249405006
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
740 Cantabia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered on 10 February 1913 at Winchester, Massachusetts by American amateur astronomer J. H. Metcalf. Cantabia is a contraction of Cantabrigia, Latin for Cambridge, named in honor of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is orbiting at a distance of 3.05 AU with a period of 5.33 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.11. Between 2014 and 2021, 740 Cantabia has been observed to occult three stars.
This asteroid shows an exceptionally slow rate of spin. Photometry observations from two independent teams during 2009 were combined to generate a light curve showing a rotation period of 64.453 hours (2.69 days) with a brightness variation of 0.16±0.03 in magnitude. The spectrum is classified as type CX in the Tholen taxonomy. It spans a girth estimated at ~91 km.