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
- E. Bowell
- Discovery site
- Anderson Mesa Stn.
- Discovery date
- 14 April 1980
- Pronunciation
- / aɪ d ə ˈ m iː n iː ə s / , / aɪ ˈ d ɒ m ɪ n juː s /
- Named after
- Ἰδομενεύς , (Greek mythology)
- Alternative designations
- 1980 GC
- Minor planet category
- Jupiter trojan , Greek · background
- Adjectives
- Idomene(i)an
- Observation arc
- 62.21 yr (22,722 d)
- Aphelion
- 5.5279 AU
- Perihelion
- 4.8424 AU
- Semi major axis
- 5.1851 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 11.81 yr (4,313 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 117.26 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 5 0.6 / day
- Inclination
- 21.951°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 171.22°
- Argument of perihelion
- 9.1353°
via Wikipedia infobox
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2759 Idomeneus /aɪdəˈmiːniːəs/ is a dark Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 55 kilometers (34 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 14 April 1980, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the United States, and later named after Idomeneus from Greek mythology. The D-type asteroid from the Jovian background population belongs to the 80 largest Jupiter trojans. It is a suspected binary system and potentially a slow rotator with a rotation period of 479 hours.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2759 Idomeneus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.