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
- Joel Hastings Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Taunton, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 21 October 1908
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ æ d ə l eɪ d /
- Alternative designations
- 1908 EKa; 1930 FX;, 1937 JG; 1955 SE1;, 1955 UF
- Observation arc
- 107.13 yr (39129 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.4746 AU (370.19 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.0157 AU (301.54 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.2452 AU (335.88 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.36 yr (1228.8 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 311.640 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 34.728 / day
- Inclination
- 5.9953°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 203.410°
- Argument of perihelion
- 264.252°
- Synodic rotation period
- 19.967 h (0.8320 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
525 Adelaide is an S-type asteroid belonging to the Flora family in the Main Belt. It was discovered 21 October 1908 by Joel Hastings Metcalf.
Previously, the object A904 EB, discovered 14 March 1904 by Max Wolf, had been named 525 Adelaide but was subsequently lost. When it was rediscovered 3 October 1930 by Sylvain Arend as 1930 TA, it was named 1171 Rusthawelia. Some 28 years passed before the two objects were realized to be the same. 1930 TA retained the name Rusthawelia (and discovery credited to Arend); the name 525 Adelaide was reused for the object 1908 EKa.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q487990” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.