Enhanced Image of Asteroid Braille from Deep Space 1 · NASA · NASA — public domain
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
- E. F. Helin , K. J. Lawrence
- Discovery site
- Palomar Observatory
- Discovery date
- 27 May 1992
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ b r eɪ l /
- Named after
- Louis Braille , (inventor of braille )
- Alternative designations
- 1992 KD
- Minor planet category
- Mars-crosser
- Observation arc
- 24.93 yr (9,107 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3557 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.3263 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3410 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.58 yr (1,308 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 16.880 °
- Inclination
- 28.999°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 241.95°
- Argument of perihelion
- 356.11°
- Earth moid
- 0.3154 AU · 122.9 LD
- Dimensions
- 1.600 ± 0.511 km , 1.64 km (derived) , 2.1 km × 1 km × 1 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Louis Braille
- Followed by
- (9970) 1992 ST1
- Follows
- 9968 Serpe
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- Mars-crossing asteroid
- Mass
- 7.8
- Orbital period
- 1307.039586155211
- Image
- Braille3.jpg
Show 20 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Kenneth J. Lawrence
- Commons category
- 9969 Braille
- site of astronomical discovery
- Palomar Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1992 KD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1992-05-27
- orbital inclination
- 29.02100978448064
- Commons gallery
- 9969 Braille
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.4341099046088279
- albedo
- 0.34
- absolute magnitude
- 16.0
- periapsis
- 1.323911543486306
- apoapsis
- 3.355129684726572
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.339520614106439
- mean anomaly
- 122.5734142527232
- longitude of ascending node
- 241.8990848882158
- argument of periapsis
- 356.1228953693984
- rotation period
- 226.4
- asteroid spectral type
- Q-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460555.47693156
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
9969 Braille, provisional designation 1992 KD, is an eccentric, rare-type and elongated asteroid from the innermost regions of the asteroid belt, classified as Mars-crosser and slow rotator, approximately 1–2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered in 1992, by astronomers at Palomar Observatory and later named after Louis Braille, the inventor of the writing system for the blind. It was photographed in closeup by the spacecraft Deep Space 1 in 1999, but a malfunction resulted in indistinct images.
Discovery and naming
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “9969 Braille” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.