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
- Adam Massinger
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 30 March 1914
- Alternative designations
- 1914 UN
- Observation arc
- 95.43 yr (34854 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1099 AU (465.23 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.0273 AU (303.28 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.5686 AU (384.26 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.12 yr (1503.6 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 268.20 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 21.912 / day
- Inclination
- 12.769°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 71.882°
- Argument of perihelion
- 131.607°
- Mean radius
- 24.27 ± 0.9 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.919 h , 8.8882 h (0.37034 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.1245 ± 0.010
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 49.46
- Orbital period
- 1505.9060095258
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A914 FD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1914-03-30
- orbital inclination
- 12.78625445375199
- albedo
- 0.12
- rotation period
- 8.8882
- absolute magnitude
- 9.46
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.207000861874563
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.571182832487441
- periapsis
- 2.03894577012546
- apoapsis
- 3.103419894849421
- longitude of ascending node
- 71.74105636701256
- argument of periapsis
- 132.4670409930147
- mean anomaly
- 0.5394222455498356
- time of periapsis
- 2460998.2435577745
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
785 Zwetana is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by Adam Massinger, an assistant at the Heidelberg Observatory, on March 30, 1914. It was named for the daughter of Kiril Popoff, a Bulgarian astronomer. This asteroid is orbiting 2.57 AU from the Sun with an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.21 and a period of 4.12 yr. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 12.8° to the plane of the ecliptic.
This asteroid spans a girth of ~48.5 km and it has a Tholen taxonomic class of M. Radar observations indicate that it is almost certainly metallic. The near infrared spectra suggests the presence of spinel on the surface, which is indicative of calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions. The best meteorite analog to the near infrared spectrum of this object is the enstatite chondrite, Abee.