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
- 1 October 1921
- Named after
- Birgit Asplind, (daughter of Bror Asplind )
- Alternative designations
- A921 TG · 1921 KH
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background ( Florian )
- Observation arc
- 98.26 yr (35,889 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.6203 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8770 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2486 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.37 yr (1,232 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 123.62 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 32.28 / day
- Inclination
- 3.0260°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 249.16°
- Argument of perihelion
- 88.040°
- Mean diameter
- 7.506 ± 0.110 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.85 ± 0.05 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 961 Gunnie
- Follows
- Q132276
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 7.506
- Orbital period
- 1231.397752262337
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A921 TG
- time of discovery or invention
- 1921-10-01
- orbital inclination
- 3.027492608779378
- albedo
- 0.217
- absolute magnitude
- 12.51
- rotation period
- 8.681
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1653870789194586
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.248363983711928
- periapsis
- 1.876513632098095
- apoapsis
- 2.62021433532576
- longitude of ascending node
- 249.089853022665
- argument of periapsis
- 87.8996065726704
- mean anomaly
- 348.5576553260117
- time of periapsis
- 2461039.6391042005
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
960 Birgit (prov. designation: A921 TG or 1921 KH) is a background asteroid, approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) in diameter, located in the Florian region of the inner asteroid belt. It was discovered on 1 October 1921, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. The possibly S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 8.9 hours. It was named after Birgit Asplind, daughter of Swedish astronomer Bror Asplind (1890–1954).
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q158297” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.