File:41_Daphne_VLT_(2021),_deconvolved.pdf · 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
- H. Goldschmidt
- Discovery date
- May 22, 1856
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ d æ f n i /
- Named after
- Daphne
- Alternative designations
- 1949 TG
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Daphnean / ˈ d æ f n i ə n /
- Aphelion
- 3.517 AU (526.144 million km)
- Perihelion
- 2.014 AU (301.220 million km)
- Semi major axis
- 2.765 AU (413.682 million km)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.60 a (1,679.618 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 247.500°
- Inclination
- 15.765°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 178.159°
- Argument of perihelion
- 46.239°
- Known satellites
- Peneius / p ɛ ˈ n iː ə s / , (S/2008 (41) 1)
- Dimensions
- 213×160 km , 239x183x153 km
- Mean diameter
- 187 ± 13 km , 205.495 ± 1.881 , 189 km
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
41 Daphne is a large asteroid from the asteroid belt. It is a dark-surfaced body 174 km in diameter and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous chondrites. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration. It was discovered by H. Goldschmidt on May 22, 1856, and named after Daphne, the nymph in Greek mythology who was turned into a laurel tree. Incorrect orbital calculations initially resulted in 56 Melete being mistaken for a second sighting of Daphne. Daphne was not sighted again until August 31, 1862.
The orbit of 41 Daphne places it in a 9:22 mean motion resonance with the planet Mars. The computed Lyapunov time for this asteroid is 14,000 years, indicating that it occupies a chaotic orbit that will change randomly over time because of gravitational perturbations of the planets.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “41 Daphne” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.