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
- 12 July 1923
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ p r ɪ s k ə /
- Named after
- A girl's name picked from a, popular German calendar
- Alternative designations
- 1923 NR · 1959 WA, 1967 RN
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Adeona
- Observation arc
- 93.71 yr (34,229 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.1568 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1787 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6677 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.36 yr (1,592 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 206.91 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 34.32 / day
- Inclination
- 10.508°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 247.11°
- Argument of perihelion
- 51.494°
- Dimensions
- 16.71 ± 0.31 km , 18.20 ± 0.28 km , 18.59 km (derived) , 18.60 ± 5.07 km , 18.70 ± 1.6 km , 19.45 ± 1.99 km , 20.274 ± 0.123 km , 20.391 ± 0.119 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 20.391
- Orbital period
- 1596.374835493709
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A923 NC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1923-07-12
- orbital inclination
- 10.49027911598473
- albedo
- 0.057
- rotation period
- 16.241
- absolute magnitude
- 12.49
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1817100352951261
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.673155959822693
- periapsis
- 2.187416696013935
- apoapsis
- 3.158895223631451
- longitude of ascending node
- 247.0241818699396
- argument of periapsis
- 52.20875896692353
- mean anomaly
- 164.0434549078751
- time of periapsis
- 2460273.0698796045
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
997 Priska, provisional designation 1923 NR, is a carbonaceous Adeonian asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 19 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 July 1923, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid's name is a common German female name, unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries.
Orbit and classification