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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 2 February 1918
- Pronunciation
- / p ə ˈ r ɪ s ə t ɪ s /
- Named after
- Queen Parysatis , (Persian Queen)
- Alternative designations
- A918 CE · A906 JA, A908 YL · A915 JD, 1915 JD · 1918 DC, 1906 JA · 1908 YL
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , background
- Observation arc
- 113.73 yr (41,539 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2357 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1828 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7093 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.46 yr (1,629 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 14.339 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 15.6 / day
- Inclination
- 13.850°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 123.94°
- Argument of perihelion
- 298.11°
- Mean diameter
- 42.18 ± 0.50 km 44.65 ± 1.4 km 44.749 ± 0.370 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 889 Erynia
- Follows
- 887 Alinda
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 44.749
- Orbital period
- 1627.109222325461
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A918 CE
- time of discovery or invention
- 1918-02-02
- albedo
- 0.139
- rotation period
- 5.9314
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 9.36
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1954263889614333
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.707356956083105
- periapsis
- 2.178267962526166
- apoapsis
- 3.236445949640044
- orbital inclination
- 13.85712201995986
- longitude of ascending node
- 123.8959311353602
- argument of periapsis
- 297.7734275622872
- mean anomaly
- 96.94417312992657
- time of periapsis
- 2460562.3367829155
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
888 Parysatis (prov. designation: A918 CE or 1918 DC) is a stony background asteroid, approximately 44 kilometers (27 miles) in diameter, that is located in the central region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory on 2 February 1918. The S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 5.9 hours. It was named after the Persian Queen Parysatis from the Achaemenid Empire of the 5th century BC.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “888 Parysatis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.