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
- 31 May 1918
- Named after
- Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , (Germany's nat'l academy)
- Alternative designations
- A918 KD · 1935 OL, 1918 DS
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 101.67 yr (37,134 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5069 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6027 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0548 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.34 yr (1,950 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 291.98 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 4.56 / day
- Inclination
- 17.025°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 144.94°
- Argument of perihelion
- 222.40°
- Dimensions
- 82.8 km × 59.8 km
- Mean diameter
- 75.55 ± 0.97 km 76.14 ± 4.5 km 85.992 ± 0.577 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 85.992
- Orbital period
- 1949.142583059449
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1935 OL
- time of discovery or invention
- 1918-05-31
- albedo
- 0.039
- absolute magnitude
- 9.62
- rotation period
- 12.597
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1454845196281924
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.053726387352104
- periapsis
- 2.609456470812248
- apoapsis
- 3.49799630389196
- orbital inclination
- 17.03327516721448
- longitude of ascending node
- 144.8899487838267
- argument of periapsis
- 222.8121154328593
- mean anomaly
- 301.1230082933221
- time of periapsis
- 2461319.276810272
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
893 Leopoldina (prov. designation: A918 KD or 1918 DS) is a large and elongated background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory on 31 May 1918. The dark carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 14.1 hours and measures approximately 76 kilometers (47 miles) in diameter. It was named for Germany's national academy, the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle.
Orbit and classification