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
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 3228 Pire
- Follows
- 3226 Plinius
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 7.909
- Orbital period
- 1398.398046528687
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1980 VT2
- time of discovery or invention
- 1928-02-24
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1339270727339698
- orbital inclination
- 3.913559778695441
- periapsis
- 2.119545371485554
- apoapsis
- 2.775066397933021
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.447305884709288
- mean anomaly
- 219.8530020497554
- longitude of ascending node
- 154.363359404572
- argument of periapsis
- 332.5875768125349
- absolute magnitude
- 12.75
- albedo
- 0.28
- rotation period
- 6.536
- time of periapsis
- 2461544.8924671123
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
Article · Deutsch
(3227) Hasegawa (1928 DF; 1947 CC; 1951 EN; 1955 FR; 1957 UZ; 1957 WL1; 1959 JM; 1961 XX; 1966 BA; 1972 RW1; 1974 ET; 1978 GB2; 1978 JR2; 1980 VT2) ist ein ungefähr acht Kilometer großer Asteroid des inneren Hauptgürtels, der am 24. Februar 1928 vom Astronomen Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth aus der Weimarer Republik an der Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl auf dem Westgipfel des Königstuhls bei Heidelberg (IAU-Code 024) entdeckt wurde.
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA