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
- C. le Morvan
- Discovery site
- Paris
- Discovery date
- 19 December 1913
- Alternative designations
- 1913 TW
- Observation arc
- 107.33 yr (39203 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5625 AU (532.94 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.5318 AU (378.75 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0472 AU (455.85 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.32 yr (1942.9 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 240.634 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 7.044 / day
- Inclination
- 5.5589°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 250.253°
- Argument of perihelion
- 28.478°
- Earth moid
- 1.51688 AU (226.922 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 1.56651 AU (234.347 Gm)
- Mean radius
- 25.185 ± 0.95 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 25.107 h (1.0461 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 50.214
- Orbital period
- 1946.92252464783
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A913 YE
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-12-19
- orbital inclination
- 5.562572993344168
- albedo
- 0.189
- rotation period
- 25.194
- absolute magnitude
- 9.08
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1649435312590543
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.051407166370545
- periapsis
- 2.548097293040203
- apoapsis
- 3.554717039700888
- longitude of ascending node
- 250.0749640024217
- argument of periapsis
- 29.06055615762934
- mean anomaly
- 149.626051340441
- time of periapsis
- 2460191.30463992
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
774 Armor is a minor planet (specifically an asteroid) orbiting in the main belt. It was discovered on 13 December 1913, in Paris by French astronomer Charles le Morvan and was named after the Celtic region of Armorica. The asteroid is orbiting at a distance of 3.05 AU with a period of 5.32 yr and an eccentricity of 0.169. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 5.56° to the plane of the ecliptic.
In the SMASS-I taxonomy, this is classified as an S-type asteroid. It spans a girth of approximately 50 km. The rotation of this asteroid is commensurate with the length of an Earth day, requiring measurements from more than one latitude for full coverage. Photometric observations from the US and Australia in 2012 provided an estimated rotation period of 25.107±0.005 h with a brightness variation of 0.16±0.02 in magnitude. This is consistent with the results of an earlier study in 2006.