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
- 30 July 1922
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A922 OD · 1934 SE, 1940 TF · 1944 LA, 1949 JB · 1955 HV, 1922 ME · 1949 JB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 97.43 yr (35,585 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4513 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8707 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1610 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.62 yr (2,053 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 209.40 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 31.44 / day
- Inclination
- 14.868°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 250.70°
- Argument of perihelion
- 348.40°
- Mean diameter
- 73.87 ± 1.3 km 92.90 ± 1.44 km 95.689 ± 1.941 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.37 ± 0.12 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 73.87
- Orbital period
- 2054.303715124302
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A922 OD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1922-07-30
- orbital inclination
- 14.86290580528965
- argument of periapsis
- 348.38621757889
- albedo
- 0.0477
- rotation period
- 16.633
- absolute magnitude
- 9.54
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.089064112847613
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.162599149377719
- periapsis
- 2.880925061845777
- apoapsis
- 3.444273236909662
- longitude of ascending node
- 250.6662249113755
- mean anomaly
- 200.3579115273413
- time of periapsis
- 2461911.4814873324
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Article
983 Gunila (prov. designation: A922 OD or 1922 ME), is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 74 kilometers (46 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 30 July 1922, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in Germany. The X-type asteroid has an ambiguous rotation period of 8.3 or 16.6 hours. It was named "Gunila", a common German female name unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification