Image by BaramDori on Pixabay · Pixabay License
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
- G. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 28 April 1913
- Named after
- Faina Neujmina , (Wife of the discoverer)
- Alternative designations
- A913 HE · 1913 RK
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Faïna · background
- Observation arc
- 106.97 yr (39,072 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9387 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1657 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5522 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.08 yr (1,489 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 293.41 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 30.12 / day
- Inclination
- 15.600°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 78.849°
- Argument of perihelion
- 302.26°
- Dimensions
- 132.0 km × 88.2 km
- Mean diameter
- 106.81 ± 1.28 km 110.50 ± 4.3 km 113.699 ± 2.449 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q156917
- Follows
- Q156906
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 113.699
- Orbital period
- 1489.102173550589
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Grigory Neujmin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- A913 HE
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-04-28
- orbital inclination
- 15.59613420133479
- albedo
- 0.027
- Commons category
- 751 Faïna
- rotation period
- 23.678
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 8.94
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1515068693010964
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.552019844375754
- periapsis
- 2.165371307360112
- apoapsis
- 2.938668381391395
- longitude of ascending node
- 78.81089677293583
- argument of periapsis
- 302.9289504955631
- mean anomaly
- 56.44870537990578
- time of periapsis
- 2460767.0058614574
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
751 Faïna (prov. designation: A913 HE or 1913 RK) is a very large background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 110 kilometers (68 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 28 April 1913, by Russian astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The elongated C-type asteroid (Ch) has a rotation period of 23.7 hours. It was named after Faina Mikhajlovna Neujmina, colleague and first wife of the discoverer.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “751 Faïna” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.