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
- 29 October 1918
- Named after
- John D. Rockefeller , (American business magnate )
- Alternative designations
- A918 UC · 1949 UK, 1961 AK · A913 UD, A916 KC · 1918 EO, 1913 UD · 1916 KC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 106.24 yr (38,805 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2567 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7366 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.9967 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.19 yr (1,895 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 178.00 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 24 / day
- Inclination
- 15.147°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 198.08°
- Argument of perihelion
- 251.78°
- Mean diameter
- 49.146 ± 0.763 km 58.75 ± 1.7 km 61.36 ± 0.77 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 6.826 ± 0.004 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 49.146
- Orbital period
- 1893.234579870705
Show 17 more facts
- provisional designation
- A918 UC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1918-10-29
- orbital inclination
- 15.18025482689971
- catalog code
- A916 KC
- rotation period
- 6.823
- apparent magnitude
- 16.1
- albedo
- 0.055
- Commons category
- 904 Rockefellia
- absolute magnitude
- 10.46
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.08506590694855397
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.99504947535985
- periapsis
- 2.740272875382574
- apoapsis
- 3.249826075337126
- longitude of ascending node
- 197.7779030034818
- argument of periapsis
- 254.4685074867155
- mean anomaly
- 195.7008811819021
- time of periapsis
- 2461864.546592191
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
904 Rockefellia (prov. designation: A918 UC or 1918 EO) is a dark and large background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, that measures approximately 59 kilometers (37 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 29 October 1918, by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid (Ch) has a rotation period of 6.8 hours and is rather spherical in shape. It was named after American philanthropist and oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937).
Orbit and classification