Image by 12019 on Pixabay · Pixabay License
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
1602 Indiana (1950 GF)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 7.970 km
- Albedo
- 0.297
- Rotation period
- 2.601 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 12.270 H
- Earth MOID
- 1.030 AU
via NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Indiana University , ( Indiana Asteroid Program )
- Discovery site
- Goethe Link Obs.
- Discovery date
- March 14, 1950
- Named after
- Indiana ( U.S. state )
- Alternative designations
- 1950 GF · 1943 DJ, 1975 XR
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 74.27 yr (27,128 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.4796 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0104 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2450 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.36 yr (1,229 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 57.226 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 34.8 / day
- Inclination
- 4.1618°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 75.134°
- Argument of perihelion
- 73.437°
- Dimensions
- 7.970 ± 0.810 km , 8.41 ± 0.59 km , 8.515 ± 0.047 km , 8.62 km (calculated)
- Synodic rotation period
- 2.57 ± 0.06 h , 2.601 ± 0.001 h , 2.610 ± 0.001 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Indiana
- Followed by
- Q141308
- Follows
- Q141292
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 7.97
- Orbital period
- 1228.169029971754
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Indiana Asteroid Program
- site of astronomical discovery
- Goethe Link Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1975 XR
- time of discovery or invention
- 1950-03-14
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1039725121144968
- absolute magnitude
- 12.27
- orbital inclination
- 4.162080776505699
- periapsis
- 2.011072880646191
- apoapsis
- 2.47779137371287
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.24443212717953
- mean anomaly
- 215.8426387128875
- longitude of ascending node
- 75.03717229636861
- argument of periapsis
- 74.01692410339216
- albedo
- 0.297
- rotation period
- 2.601
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2461492.304462709
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1602 Indiana, provisional designation 1950 GF, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on March 14, 1950, by IU's Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, in the United States. It was later named after the U.S. state of Indiana and for Indiana University.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1602 Indiana” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.