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
- B. Jekhovsky
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 6 April 1922
- Named after
- Philippe de Rothschild , (French financier)
- Alternative designations
- A922 GA · 1922 LV, A914 YA · 1914 YA, A919 XA · 1919 XA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 105.05 yr (38,370 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1990 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.0366 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1178 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.51 yr (2,011 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 355.29 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 44.4 / day
- Inclination
- 15.174°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 75.739°
- Argument of perihelion
- 72.694°
- Mean diameter
- 65.471 ± 0.237 km 65.67 ± 5.3 km 65.92 ± 0.94 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 15.405 ± 0.005 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 65.471
- Orbital period
- 2012.124217169641
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A922 GA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1922-04-06
- albedo
- 0.051
- rotation period
- 15.405
- absolute magnitude
- 9.89
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.02097654164145759
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.119159434854224
- periapsis
- 3.053730257082659
- apoapsis
- 3.184588612625789
- orbital inclination
- 15.17644793786505
- longitude of ascending node
- 75.64778171323294
- argument of periapsis
- 65.94641299332869
- mean anomaly
- 359.8947393923517
- time of periapsis
- 2461001.0883261603
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
977 Philippa (prov. designation: A922 GA or 1922 LV) is a large background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 65 kilometers (40 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 6 April 1922, by Russian–French astronomer Benjamin Jekhowsky at the Algiers Observatory in Northern Africa. The C-type asteroid is likely irregular in shape and has a rotation period of 15.4 hours. It was named after French financier Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902–1988).
Orbit and classification