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
- Joel Hastings Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Taunton, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 27 November 1907
- Pronunciation
- / b ɛr ɪ ˈ n aɪ k iː /
- Named after
- Berenice II
- Alternative designations
- 1907 BK
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 108.38 yr (39584 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1360 AU (469.14 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.8961 AU (433.25 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.01609 AU (451.201 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.24 yr (1913.2 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 156.090 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 17.376 / day
- Inclination
- 11.290°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 132.867°
- Argument of perihelion
- 55.838°
- Dimensions
- 39.22 ± 2.4 km (24.37 ± 1.49 mi), Mean diameter
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 49.793
- Orbital period
- 1911.467175061031
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A907 WC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1907-11-27
- orbital inclination
- 11.28678418359343
- albedo
- 0.085
- rotation period
- 12.4886
- absolute magnitude
- 9.35
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.04513364633477263
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.01424774750647
- periapsis
- 2.878203755705127
- apoapsis
- 3.150291739307812
- longitude of ascending node
- 132.742167571651
- argument of periapsis
- 61.31734915532646
- mean anomaly
- 70.56952469699253
- time of periapsis
- 2460625.8018610612
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
653 Berenike is a main-belt asteroid discovered on 27 November 1907 by Joel Hastings Metcalf at Taunton, Massachusetts. It is named after Berenice II of Egypt, after whom the constellation Coma Berenices is also named. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid's provisional designation 1907 BK.
Berenike is a member of the dynamic Eos family of asteroids that most likely formed as the result of a collisional breakup of a parent body.