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
- Franz Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 23 February 1913
- Alternative designations
- 1913 QU
- Observation arc
- 102.98 yr (37,612 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3678 AU (503.82 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.6535 AU (396.96 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0107 AU (450.39 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.22 yr (1,908.1 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 65.177 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 19.212 / day
- Inclination
- 11.219°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 64.214°
- Argument of perihelion
- 284.294°
- Earth moid
- 1.67537 AU (250.632 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 2.11567 AU (316.500 Gm)
- Mean radius
- 22.80 ± 1.75 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 18.52 h (0.772 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Thomas Edison
- Followed by
- 743 Eugenisis
- Follows
- 741 Botolphia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 47.087
- Orbital period
- 1910.963867850753
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Franz Kaiser
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A913 DC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-02-23
- orbital inclination
- 11.20113071125052
- albedo
- 0.121
- rotation period
- 18.579
- asteroid spectral type
- K-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 9.62
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1142629092927809
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.013718604507514
- periapsis
- 2.669362348966706
- apoapsis
- 3.358074860048323
- longitude of ascending node
- 64.12875150391528
- argument of periapsis
- 283.9228069257376
- mean anomaly
- 346.3838017020693
- time of periapsis
- 2461072.77795268
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
742 Edisona is a minor planet, specifically an asteroid orbiting in the asteroid belt that was discovered by German astronomer Franz Kaiser on February 23, 1913. It was named for inventor Thomas Edison. This asteroid is orbiting 3.01 AU with a period of 5.22 years and an eccentricity of 0.119. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 11.2° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is a member of the dynamic Eos family of asteroids that most likely formed as the result of a collisional breakup of a parent body.
Photometric observations made during 2008 were used to produce a light curve of 742 Edisona showing a rotation period of 18.52±0.01 with a brightness variation of 0.30±0.01 in magnitude. It spans a girth of approximately 45.6 km.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “742 Edisona” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.