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(39746) 1997 BW

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minor planet

In the Vinony graph

Within Vinony's link graph, (39746) 1997 BW connects to HTML element, list of minor planets: 39001–40000 and JPL Small-Body Database.

Vinony files it under Astronomical objects discovered in 1997, Discoveries by SCAP and Eunomia asteroids.

Its subject is documented across 6 Wikipedia language editions.

Picture of the Day · NASA

Pathfinder on Mars

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

Wikidata facts

Instance of
asteroid
Parent body
Sun
Minor-planet group
asteroid belt
Diameter
3.716
Orbital period
1576.454440448063
Show 16 more facts
time of discovery or invention
1997-01-18
site of astronomical discovery
Xinglong Station
provisional designation
2000 WF163
albedo
0.169
orbital eccentricity
0.1525114236276462
orbital inclination
13.68127298822768
periapsis
2.246583256111018
apoapsis
3.055159608028677
semi-major axis of an orbit
2.650871432069848
mean anomaly
283.3305168664435
longitude of ascending node
122.7133842016341
argument of periapsis
306.39604
absolute magnitude
14.79
time of periapsis
2461336.2387420353
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