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
- F. Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 1 March 1913
- Pronunciation
- / m ɒ ˈ r ɪ ʃ ( i ) ə /
- Named after
- Saint Maurice , ( Christian martyr )
- Alternative designations
- A913 EH · 1972 BM, 1913 QX
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 107.16 yr (39,139 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3943 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.1332 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2638 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.90 yr (2,154 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 104.57 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 1.92 / day
- Inclination
- 13.324°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 125.68°
- Argument of perihelion
- 26.747°
- Mean diameter
- 23.23 ± 1.38 km 24.711 ± 0.288 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 746 Marlu
- Follows
- 744 Aguntina
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 24.711
- Orbital period
- 2149.061413476346
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Franz Kaiser
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A913 EH
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-03-01
- orbital inclination
- 13.29431595139596
- albedo
- 0.2
- rotation period
- 9.945
- absolute magnitude
- 10.59
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.04356749976929669
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.25911936220798
- periapsis
- 3.117127680146873
- apoapsis
- 3.401111044269086
- longitude of ascending node
- 125.469040375829
- argument of periapsis
- 38.12515234965112
- mean anomaly
- 67.57460322338348
- time of periapsis
- 2460597.105632449
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
745 Mauritia (prov. designation: A913 EH or 1913 QX) is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 24 kilometers (15 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 1 March 1913, by German astronomer Franz Kaiser at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in Germany. The presumed carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 9.9 hours. It was named after Saint Maurice, patron of the Saint Mauritius church in the city of Wiesbaden, where the discoverer was born.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q156881” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.