Image by Leonhard_Niederwimmer 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
Key facts
- Discovered by
- J. Perrotin
- Discovery date
- 29 January 1878
- Pronunciation
- / ɡ ə ˈ r ʌ m n ə /
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 96.73 yr (35331 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1722 AU (474.55 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.2739 AU (340.17 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.7231 AU (407.37 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.49 yr (1641.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 301.92 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 9.624 / day
- Inclination
- 0.86595°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 312.18°
- Argument of perihelion
- 175.87°
- Earth moid
- 1.28761 AU (192.624 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 1.89216 AU (283.063 Gm)
- Synodic rotation period
- 23.866 h (0.9944 d )
- Spectral type
- S
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Garonne
- Followed by
- 181 Eucharis
- Follows
- Q468818
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 23.44
- Orbital period
- 1640.136573632658
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Henri Joseph Anastase Perrotin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Toulouse Observatory
- time of discovery or invention
- 1878-01-29
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- orbital inclination
- 0.8679979462580454
- Commons category
- 180 Garumna
- provisional designation
- A878 BA
- albedo
- 0.242
- rotation period
- 23.866
- absolute magnitude
- 10.32
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1686383190930903
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.721788600575642
- periapsis
- 2.262790746047831
- apoapsis
- 3.180786455103452
- longitude of ascending node
- 311.8061569632353
- argument of periapsis
- 175.7497322972228
- mean anomaly
- 328.606400231918
- time of periapsis
- 2461143.52719766
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
180 Garumna is a main belt asteroid that was discovered by the French astronomer Henri Joseph Perrotin on January 29, 1878. Its name comes from the ancient Latin name for the Garonne River in France. This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.72 AU with an eccentricity of 0.165 and an orbital period of 4.49 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 0.87° to the plane of the ecliptic.
Based on infrared observations, this object has a diameter of 23.4 km. In the Tholen classification system, it is categorized as a stony S-type asteroid, while the Bus asteroid taxonomy system lists it with the Sr sub-type.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “180 Garumna” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.