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
- 3 March 1921
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A921 EL · 1921 JE
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 98.85 yr (36,104 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5276 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5362 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0319 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.28 yr (1,928 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 277.84 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 12.12 / day
- Inclination
- 8.6536°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 357.10°
- Argument of perihelion
- 163.29°
- Mean diameter
- 17.331 ± 0.194 km 17.77 ± 1.08 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 26.24 ± 0.01 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 17.331
- Orbital period
- 1928.585319842137
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A921 EL
- time of discovery or invention
- 1921-03-03
- albedo
- 0.13
- rotation period
- 26.24
- absolute magnitude
- 11.5
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1633541526987957
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.032217057558179
- periapsis
- 2.536891809321927
- apoapsis
- 3.52754230579443
- orbital inclination
- 8.652006502092801
- longitude of ascending node
- 357.0534858273219
- argument of periapsis
- 162.5670448584397
- mean anomaly
- 292.1564100677401
- time of periapsis
- 2461363.95042108
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Article
948 Jucunda (provisional designation: A921 EL or 1921 JE) is a background asteroid, approximately 17 kilometers (11 miles) in diameter, located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 3 March 1921, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid has a longer-than average rotation period of 26.2 hours. It was named after a common German female name, unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification