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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 18 April 1915
- Named after
- Vitold Cerasky (1849–1925), (Belarusian–Soviet astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- A915 HF · 1974 QB 3 , A909 BK · A917 QA, 1915 WY
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) Eos
- Observation arc
- 111.04 yr (40,559 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2127 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8199 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0163 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.24 yr (1,913 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 91.475 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 17.16 / day
- Inclination
- 11.320°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 132.20°
- Argument of perihelion
- 337.21°
- Mean diameter
- 21.241 ± 0.270 km 26.24 ± 1.3 km 30.38 ± 0.56 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 7.368 ± 0.002 h
via Wikipedia infobox
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
807 Ceraskia (prov. designation: A915 HF or 1915 WY) is an elongated Eos asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 18 April 1915, by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 7.4 hours and measures approximately 24 kilometers (15 miles) in diameter. It was named after Belarusian–Soviet astronomer Vitold Cerasky (1849–1925).
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “807 Ceraskia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.