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
- Franz Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 29 September 1913
- Pronunciation
- / m ə ˈ ɡ ʌ n ʃ i ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1913 SW
- Observation arc
- 107.39 yr (39224 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3100 AU (495.17 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.7272 AU (407.98 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0186 AU (451.58 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.24 yr (1915.6 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 154.498 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 16.548 / day
- Inclination
- 10.090°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 7.8400°
- Argument of perihelion
- 71.720°
- Earth moid
- 1.7615 AU (263.52 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 1.96144 AU (293.427 Gm)
- Mean radius
- 15.64 ± 1.15 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Mainz
- Followed by
- 767 Bondia
- Follows
- Q156995
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 41.044
- Orbital period
- 1915.870356997216
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Franz Kaiser
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A913 SH
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-09-29
- orbital inclination
- 10.07680331514906
- albedo
- 0.223
- rotation period
- 4.8164
- asteroid spectral type
- M-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 9.88
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09674832700323094
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.018874975229857
- periapsis
- 2.726803871944448
- apoapsis
- 3.310946078515266
- longitude of ascending node
- 7.688564051761912
- argument of periapsis
- 69.08202910954083
- mean anomaly
- 75.95244475767453
- time of periapsis
- 2460596.2915626313
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
766 Moguntia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered on 29 September 1913 at Heidelberg by German astronomer Franz Kaiser, and is named after Mainz, ancient Moguntiacum. This object is a member of the same dynamic asteroid group as 221 Eos, the Eos family. It is orbiting at a distance of 3.02 AU from the Sun with a period of 5.24 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.097. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 10.1° to the plane of the ecliptic.
This is an M-type asteroid with a near infrared spectrum that is similar to CO/CV meteorites. An absorption feature at around 1 μm suggests the presence of olivine on the surface. 766 Moguntia spans approximately 31.2 km in girth and is spinning with a rotation period of 4.82 hours.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q157001” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.