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
- A. Paroubek , R. Podstanicka
- Discovery site
- Skalnaté Pleso Obs.
- Discovery date
- 20 March 1955
- Named after
- High Tatra Mountains , (in northern Slovakia)
- Alternative designations
- 1955 FG · 1935 UQ, 1944 DL · 1955 DY, 1964 WK · 1968 YC, 1971 SJ 2
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Vestian
- Observation arc
- 81.63 yr (29,815 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5314 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1704 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3509 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.60 yr (1,317 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 166.59 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 24.24 / day
- Inclination
- 7.7654°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 25.305°
- Argument of perihelion
- 88.343°
- Dimensions
- 8.99 ± 2.38 km , 9.399 ± 0.122 km , 9.603 ± 0.063 km , 9.87 ± 0.88 km , 16.81 km (calculated)
- Synodic rotation period
- 24 h , 39.9 ± 0.1 h , 131.3 ± 0.2 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 9.603
- Orbital period
- 1316.706252360625
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1971 SJ2
- time of discovery or invention
- 1955-03-20
- apoapsis
- 2.529089517569771
- periapsis
- 2.172993684990906
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.351041601280338
- orbital inclination
- 7.769056838211313
- longitude of ascending node
- 25.20869791054264
- argument of periapsis
- 89.39457329188014
- mean anomaly
- 265.5499987956736
- rotation period
- 131.3
- apparent magnitude
- 17.37
- absolute magnitude
- 12.57
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.07573150393956037
- albedo
- 0.192
- time of periapsis
- 2461345.952519781
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
1989 Tatry, provisional designation 1955 FG, is a carbonaceous Vestian asteroid and tumbling slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 20 March 1955, by the Slovakian astronomers Alois Paroubek and Regina Podstanická at Skalnate Pleso Observatory, Slovakia, and named for the High Tatra Mountains. It was their only minor planet discovery.