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
- G. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 21 September 1928
- Named after
- Harlow Shapley , (American astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1928 ST · 1974 QQ 2 , 2016 FJ 6
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 87.81 yr (32,073 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5741 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8758 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2250 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.32 yr (1,212 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 207.68 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 49.2 / day
- Inclination
- 6.4212°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 79.889°
- Argument of perihelion
- 317.60°
- Dimensions
- 10.93 ± 2.29 km , 11.282 ± 0.136 km , 12.003 ± 0.092 km , 12.08 km (taken) , 12.084 km , 12.32 ± 0.84 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 20 h (dated) , 24 h (dated) , 52.92 ± 0.01 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 11.282
- Orbital period
- 1212.546131966566
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 2016 FJ6
- time of discovery or invention
- 1928-09-21
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1568013119019443
- orbital inclination
- 6.417845573028456
- periapsis
- 1.8764189833014
- apoapsis
- 2.574297104822282
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.225358044061841
- mean anomaly
- 77.91945102802708
- longitude of ascending node
- 79.84096419466198
- argument of periapsis
- 317.5763361685459
- absolute magnitude
- 11.71
- albedo
- 0.278
- rotation period
- 52.92
- time of periapsis
- 2460738.052975142
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1123 Shapleya, provisional designation 1928 ST, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 21 September 1928, by Russian astronomer Grigory Neujmin at Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. It was named after American astronomer Harlow Shapley.
Orbit and classification