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
- Felix Aguilar Obs.
- Discovery site
- El Leoncito Complex
- Discovery date
- 18 May 1974
- Named after
- José Sérsic, (Argentine astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1974 KB · 1938 UU, 1978 QR 1
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 67.02 yr (24,480 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.4977 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9915 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2446 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.36 yr (1,228 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 312.67 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 35.16 / day
- Inclination
- 3.5937°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 319.88°
- Argument of perihelion
- 277.14°
- Dimensions
- 5.438 ± 0.119 , 6.21 km (calculated)
- Synodic rotation period
- 3.8811 ± 0.0003 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 5.438
- Orbital period
- 1227.790877621573
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1978 QR1
- time of discovery or invention
- 1974-05-18
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1137035812264909
- absolute magnitude
- 13.46
- apoapsis
- 2.499118981590616
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.243971397522495
- mean anomaly
- 111.8401535859162
- longitude of ascending node
- 319.7433359231791
- argument of periapsis
- 277.3397982377736
- orbital inclination
- 3.590038935236104
- periapsis
- 1.988823813454373
- albedo
- 0.261
- rotation period
- 3.8811
- time of periapsis
- 2460619.065776876
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
2691 Sérsic, provisional designation 1974 KB, is a stony Florian asteroid and binary system from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by staff members at the Felix Aguilar Observatory at El Leoncito Complex in Argentina, on 18 May 1974. The asteroid was named after Argentine astronomer José Luis Sérsic.
Classification and orbit