File:49_Pales_Model.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
- Hermann Goldschmidt
- Discovery site
- Paris Observatory
- Discovery date
- 19 September 1857
- Designation
- (49) Pales
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ p eɪ l iː z /
- Named after
- Pales
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Palian / ˈ p eɪ l i ə n / ; Palilian / p ə ˈ l ɪ l i ə n / (adj. only)
- Aphelion
- 3.7989 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.4030 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.10093 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1994.51 days (5.46 years)
- Mean anomaly
- 169.53°
- Inclination
- 3.17°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 285.646°
- Argument of perihelion
- 111.146°
- Dimensions
- 149.80 ± 3.8 km , Mean diameter
- Mass
- 2.69 × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
49 Pales (/ˈpeɪliːz/) is a large, dark main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by German-French astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt on 19 September 1857 from his balcony in Paris. The asteroid is named after Pales, the goddess of shepherds in Roman mythology. Since it was discovered on the same night as 48 Doris, geologist Élie de Beaumont suggested naming the two "The Twins".
The orbit of this asteroid has close to a 2:1 commensurability with the orbit of Jupiter. On 17 January 2000, this minor planet was observed occulting a 9th magnitude star from seven locations. These timed chords across the silhouette allowed an estimate to be made of the object's dimensions, yielding a cross-section of 251 km × 160 km.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “49 Pales” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.