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
- 23 October 1922
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A922 UB · 1922 MR, A899 PJ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 97.20 yr (35,503 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.8806 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3963 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1384 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.56 yr (2,031 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 210.24 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 38.28 / day
- Inclination
- 8.9126°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 322.66°
- Argument of perihelion
- 16.158°
- Mean diameter
- 43.67 ± 1.0 km 51.96 ± 0.77 km 52.651 ± 0.357 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 10.0813 ± 0.0003 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 52.651
- Orbital period
- 2027.106344238334
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A922 UB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1922-10-23
- orbital inclination
- 8.910283920515877
- albedo
- 0.144
- rotation period
- 10.0813
- absolute magnitude
- 9.64
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2379710127138075
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.134623636087058
- periapsis
- 2.388674074930783
- apoapsis
- 3.880573197243333
- longitude of ascending node
- 322.5351669104161
- argument of periapsis
- 15.71179697365438
- mean anomaly
- 205.5938694929563
- time of periapsis
- 2461869.9379076115
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Article
987 Wallia (provisional designation: A922 UB or 1922 MR) is a large background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 52 kilometers (32 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 23 October 1922, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. The D/T-type asteroid has a rotation period of 10.1 hours and shows an unusual trinomial lightcurve. It was named after a common German female name, unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, and taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification