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
- S. Belyavskyj
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 8 August 1923
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ɡ aʊ s i ə /
- Named after
- Carl Friedrich Gauss , (German mathematician)
- Alternative designations
- 1923 OA · A907 XC, A911 MD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 109.33 yr (39,933 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.6150 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8046 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2098 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.75 yr (2,100 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 121.11 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 17.04 / day
- Inclination
- 9.2958°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 259.32°
- Argument of perihelion
- 142.51°
- Dimensions
- 67.80 ± 19.69 km , 68.51 ± 21.78 km , 72.422 ± 1.517 km , 72.711 ± 0.298 km , 74.67 ± 3.8 km , 74.71 km (derived) , 75.40 ± 0.99 km , 80.07 ± 0.68 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 72.711
- Orbital period
- 2102.626997077537
- Image
- AnimatedOrbitOf1001Gaussia.gif
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- A923 PD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1923-08-08
- orbital inclination
- 9.31592950670434
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1219596476070149
- albedo
- 0.041
- periapsis
- 2.820267796170909
- apoapsis
- 3.603737179191863
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.212002487681386
- mean anomaly
- 270.6129043250416
- longitude of ascending node
- 259.0940502187557
- argument of periapsis
- 146.3071485485149
- absolute magnitude
- 9.84
- Commons category
- 1001 Gaussia
- rotation period
- 20.99
- time of periapsis
- 2461522.577001546
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
Gaussia (minor planet designation: 1001 Gaussia), provisional designation 1923 OA, is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 73 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 8 August 1923, by Soviet astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named after German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. Gauss computed the orbit of Ceres, and 1001 Gaussia was named along with 1000 Piazzia, and 1002 Olbersia in part for their work on Ceres, with names for Giuseppe Piazzi, who found Ceres, and Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, who recovered it later that year.
Orbit and classification