621 Werdandi

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

August Kopff

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

11 November 1906

Alternative designations

1906 WJ

Observation arc

104.13 yr (38035 d)

Aphelion

3.5597 AU (532.52 Gm )

Perihelion

2.6941 AU (403.03 Gm)

Semi major axis

3.1269 AU (467.78 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

5.53 yr (2019.6 d )

Mean anomaly

299.847 °

Mean motion

0° 10 41.7 / day

Inclination

2.3146°

Longitude of ascending node

67.107°

Argument of perihelion

31.965°

Mean radius

13.575 ± 0.75 km

Synodic rotation period

11.776 h (0.4907 d )

Geometric albedo

0.1527 ± 0.018

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

29.726

Orbital period

2019.322926711519

Image

621Werdandi (Lightcurve Inversion).png

via Wikidata · CC0