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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Observatory
- Discovery date
- 2 February 1916
- Alternative designations
- 1916 YU
- Observation arc
- 100.20 yr (36597 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8615 AU (428.07 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.4570 AU (367.56 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.6593 AU (397.83 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.34 yr (1583.9 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 74.8031 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 38.208 / day
- Inclination
- 13.864°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 57.066°
- Argument of perihelion
- 59.329°
- Earth moid
- 1.50119 AU (224.575 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 2.32242 AU (347.429 Gm)
- Mean radius
- 10.55 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 4.421 h (0.1842 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 816 Juliana
- Follows
- 814 Tauris
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 16.869
- Orbital period
- 1583.999100768176
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1953 VP1
- time of discovery or invention
- 1916-02-02
- albedo
- 0.644
- rotation period
- 4.421
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 10.81
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.07304478182154414
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.659322466276334
- periapsis
- 2.465072836934049
- apoapsis
- 2.85357209561862
- orbital inclination
- 13.87800688823718
- longitude of ascending node
- 56.96446026028806
- argument of periapsis
- 58.45905704598567
- mean anomaly
- 128.6986045744473
- time of periapsis
- 2460434.2264613444
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
815 Coppelia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 2 February 1916 from Heidelberg named after Coppélia, a comic ballet.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Rozhen Observatory in Bulgaria during 2010 gave a light curve with a period of 4.4565 hours and a brightness variation of 0.24 in magnitude. This is consistent with a period of 4.421 hours and an amplitude of 0.27 obtained during a 2006 study.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “815 Coppelia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.