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
Small body data
(2735) Ellen
- Orbit class
- Inner
- Semi-major axis
- 1.857 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.055
- Inclination
- 23.053 °
- Absolute magnitude
- 14.490 H
via Minor Planet Center
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Ellen Suzanne Howell
- Followed by
- 2736 Ops
- Follows
- 2734 Hašek
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 3.529
- Orbital period
- 924.2424136514027
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Tod R. Lauer
- site of astronomical discovery
- Palomar Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1977 RB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1977-09-13
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.05471395516762177
- argument of periapsis
- 59.67485047993683
- absolute magnitude
- 14.48
- orbital inclination
- 23.05251793348561
- mean anomaly
- 332.5751678235214
- longitude of ascending node
- 344.5397525224798
- periapsis
- 1.755314302695548
- apoapsis
- 1.958512453324757
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 1.856913378010153
- albedo
- 0.292
- rotation period
- 159.0
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2461070.90886968
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
Article · Deutsch
(2735) Ellen (1977 RB) ist ein ungefähr vier Kilometer großer Asteroid des inneren Hauptgürtels, der am 13. September 1977 von den US-amerikanischen Astronomen Schelte John Bus und am Palomar-Observatorium nordöstlich von San Diego in Kalifornien (IAU-Code 675) entdeckt wurde.
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA