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
- Discovery date
- 30 September 1921
- Pronunciation
- English: / ˈ ɔː s ə / AW -sə , Norwegian: [ ˈôːsə ]
- Alternative designations
- A921 SB; 1944 RC;, 1967 RA1; 1970 PC
- Observation arc
- 94.55 yr (34533 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.6300 AU (393.44 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.7863 AU (267.23 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.2081 AU (330.33 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.28 yr (1198.5 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 327.686 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 18 1.332 / day
- Inclination
- 5.4506°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 163.155°
- Argument of perihelion
- 193.982°
- Earth moid
- 0.781473 AU (116.9067 Gm)
- Jupiter moid
- 2.80382 AU (419.446 Gm)
- Mean diameter
- 7.25 ± 0.35 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q157502
- Follows
- Q157492
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 7.249
- Orbital period
- 1198.628662758475
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A921 SB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1921-09-30
- orbital inclination
- 5.449304425343867
- albedo
- 0.239
- rotation period
- 3.2324
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 12.8
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1904958741831493
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.208297027777832
- periapsis
- 1.787625555015244
- apoapsis
- 2.628968500540421
- longitude of ascending node
- 163.0677913915839
- argument of periapsis
- 193.8913006579362
- mean anomaly
- 269.0018052225772
- time of periapsis
- 2461303.480679221
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
864 Aase is an S-type asteroid belonging to the Flora family in the Main Belt.
The object A917 CB discovered 13 February 1917, by Max Wolf was named 864 Aase, and the object 1926 XB discovered 7 December 1926, by Karl Reinmuth was named 1078 Mentha. In 1958 it was established that these were one and the same object. In 1974, this was resolved by keeping the name 1078 Mentha and reusing the name and number 864 Aase for the object 1921 KE, discovered 30 September 1921, by Karl Reinmuth. Aase refers to Åse, the mother of Peer Gynt, the character from Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q122762” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.