File:372Palma_(Lightcurve_Inversion).png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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
- Auguste Charlois
- Discovery date
- 19 August 1893
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ p æ l m ə /
- Named after
- Palma
- Alternative designations
- 1893 AH
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 122.54 yr (44757 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.9693 AU (593.80 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.33325 AU (349.049 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.15125 AU (471.420 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.59 yr (2043.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 275.769 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 34.284 / day
- Inclination
- 23.828°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 327.37°
- Argument of perihelion
- 115.582°
- Dimensions
- 173.6 ± 2.8 km , 191.12 ± 2.68 km
- Mass
- (5.15 ± 0.64) × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
372 Palma is one of the largest main-belt asteroids. It was discovered by French astronomer Auguste Charlois on August 19, 1893, in Nice. The name is thought to come from the capital city of Mallorca, an island of the Balearic Islands (Spain), which is located south of France. It is one of seven of Charlois's discoveries that were expressly named by the Astromomisches Rechen-Institut (Astronomical Calculation Institute).
Plot of an occultation of the star HIP 41975 observed on January 26, 2007, by a group of American home-based and mobile citizen astronomers This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 3.15 AU with a moderate eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.26 and an orbital period of 5.59 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 23.8° relative to the plane of the ecliptic. It is classified as a B-type asteroid and is spinning with a rotation period of 8.567 hours.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “372 Palma” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.