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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 1 September 1919
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A919 RC · 1919 FT, 1973 QC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , background
- Observation arc
- 99.69 yr (36,412 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8993 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3476 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6234 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.25 yr (1,552 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 162.25 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 55.2 / day
- Inclination
- 11.577°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 192.79°
- Argument of perihelion
- 268.97°
- Mean diameter
- 23.89 ± 0.9 km 25.80 ± 0.36 km 26.656 ± 0.168 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 12.244 ± 0.003 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q158014
- Follows
- Q158000
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 26.656
- Orbital period
- 1550.305014149351
- Image
- 920Rogeria (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 19 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A919 RC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1919-09-01
- orbital inclination
- 11.5952928232586
- Commons category
- 920 Rogeria
- albedo
- 0.076
- rotation period
- 12.244
- asteroid spectral type
- D-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 11.36
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1053314279818341
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.621475580469624
- periapsis
- 2.345351814159251
- apoapsis
- 2.897599346779997
- longitude of ascending node
- 192.5959214163294
- argument of periapsis
- 270.5966582037647
- mean anomaly
- 264.8249574704948
- time of periapsis
- 2461410.362071265
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
920 Rogeria (prov. designation: A919 RC or 1919 FT) is a dark background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 1 September 1919. The D-type asteroid (DT) has a rotation period of 12.2 hours and measures approximately 26 kilometers (16 miles) in diameter. It was named "Rogeria", a name unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “920 Rogeria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.