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
- J. Palisa
- Discovery site
- Vienna Obs.
- Discovery date
- 3 October 1910
- Named after
- Valentine Noémi von Springer (née von Rothschild; , daughter of Baron Rothschild )
- Alternative designations
- 1910 KT
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 106.48 yr (38,891 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.4744 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8748 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.1746 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.21 yr (1,171 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 107.58 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 18 26.28 / day
- Inclination
- 2.4579°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 213.77°
- Argument of perihelion
- 174.50°
- Dimensions
- 7.250 ± 0.273 km , 8.58 km (calculated) , 9.85 ± 1.42 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 201.8 ± 2.0 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 7.25
- Orbital period
- 1171.597908633237
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A910 TD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1910-10-03
- orbital inclination
- 2.459513225066133
- Commons category
- 703 Noëmi
- albedo
- 0.368
- rotation period
- 200.0
- absolute magnitude
- 12.5
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1373065150902199
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.174970849462102
- periapsis
- 1.876333181699645
- apoapsis
- 2.473608517224559
- longitude of ascending node
- 213.7155195681503
- argument of periapsis
- 174.7655612335027
- mean anomaly
- 309.1389511435017
- time of periapsis
- 2461166.02416242
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
703 Noëmi, provisional designation 1910 KT, is a stony Florian asteroid and possible slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Vienna Observatory on 3 October 1910. The asteroid was likely named for Baroness Valentine Noémi von Springer (née von Rothschild; 1886–1968).
Orbit and classification