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
- 4 August 1926
- Named after
- Roald Amundsen , (Norwegian polar explorer)
- Alternative designations
- 1926 PD · 1930 XL, 1955 QE · 1955 RD, 1955 SM 1
- Minor planet category
- Mars-crosser
- Observation arc
- 91.15 yr (33,294 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.0617 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.6604 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3611 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.63 yr (1,325 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 38.699 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 18.12 / day
- Inclination
- 8.3607°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 330.34°
- Argument of perihelion
- 353.68°
- Mars moid
- 0.2734 AU
- Dimensions
- 8.85 ± 0.15 km , 9.75 km (derived) , 12.40 ± 2.48 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Roald Amundsen
- Followed by
- 1066 Lobelia
- Follows
- 1064 Aethusa
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Orbital period
- 1326.280975948465
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Sergey Belyavsky
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1955 SM1
- time of discovery or invention
- 1926-08-04
- orbital inclination
- 8.36828126507737
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2971070065358203
- periapsis
- 1.660532154858378
- apoapsis
- 3.064318342439973
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.362425248649175
- mean anomaly
- 133.5574190113471
- longitude of ascending node
- 330.2206018545299
- argument of periapsis
- 353.9089952408116
- absolute magnitude
- 12.14
- albedo
- 0.15
- rotation period
- 7.7594
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- time of periapsis
- 2460508.4592665792
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1065 Amundsenia, provisional designation 1926 PD, is a stony asteroid and sizeable Mars-crosser on an eccentric orbit from the inner asteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 August 1926, by Soviet astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named after Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “1065 Amundsenia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.