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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 15 October 1914
- Alternative designations
- 1914 VH
- Observation arc
- 101.51 yr (37076 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4777 AU (520.26 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.7910 AU (267.93 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.6344 AU (394.10 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.28 yr (1561.8 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 300.91 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 49.836 / day
- Inclination
- 19.052°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 33.194°
- Argument of perihelion
- 329.694°
- Mean radius
- 22.48 ± 0.75 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.1755 h (0.34065 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.1966 ± 0.013
- Spectral type
- XD (Tholen) , M (Rivkin)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 797 Montana
- Follows
- 795 Fini
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 43.58
- Orbital period
- 1562.913684202638
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A914 UF
- time of discovery or invention
- 1914-10-15
- orbital inclination
- 19.04566796499025
- Commons category
- 796 Sarita
- albedo
- 0.209
- rotation period
- 8.1755
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 9.31
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.3193017182624576
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.635670068056307
- periapsis
- 1.794096086553
- apoapsis
- 3.477244049559614
- longitude of ascending node
- 33.13383748180622
- argument of periapsis
- 329.6257327491513
- mean anomaly
- 4.469217051138064
- time of periapsis
- 2460981.0972208697
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
796 Sarita is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered 15 October 1914 by German astronomer Karl W. Reinmuth. This is a main belt that is orbiting at a radius of 2.63 AU with a period of 4.28 yr and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.32. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 19.052° from the plane of the ecliptic. Tholen (1989) initially classified it as type XD, although later authors treated it as an M-class body. The object's visual albedo is considered characteristic of the latter type. It has a significantly higher radar albedo than most main belt objects, which also suggests a higher metallic content.
References
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “796 Sarita” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.