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. Arend
- Discovery site
- Uccle Obs.
- Discovery date
- 13 January 1929
- Named after
- "Mimi" Delporte, (wife of Eugène Delporte )
- Alternative designations
- 1929 AJ · 1948 PU, A906 OA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) background
- Observation arc
- 87.10 yr (31,812 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2821 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9104 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5962 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.18 yr (1,528 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 122.26 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 8.16 / day
- Inclination
- 14.745°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 128.63°
- Argument of perihelion
- 281.95°
- Mean diameter
- 46.006 ± 0.305 km , 46.18 ± 10.10 km , 46.84 ± 4.9 km , 48.198 ± 0.465 km , 49.53 ± 0.67 km , 50.67 ± 13.81 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.5410 ± 0.0004 h , 8.541 ± 0.1 h , 12.749 ± 0.003 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 46.006
- Orbital period
- 1524.588004741356
- Image
- 001127-asteroid shape model (1127) Mimi.png
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 2019 HA5
- time of discovery or invention
- 1929-01-13
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2658344682472037
- orbital inclination
- 14.7733078676328
- periapsis
- 1.90325379930361
- apoapsis
- 3.281554576975384
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.592404188139497
- mean anomaly
- 109.3237006665272
- longitude of ascending node
- 128.3106923198517
- argument of periapsis
- 282.6519515344257
- absolute magnitude
- 10.59
- albedo
- 0.034
- rotation period
- 12.7439
- time of periapsis
- 2460537.5177703607
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
1127 Mimi (prov. designation: 1929 AJ) is a dark background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 13 January 1929, by Belgian astronomer Sylvain Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle. The carbonaceous C-type asteroids (CX) has a rotation period of 12.7 hours and measures approximately 47 kilometers (29 miles) in diameter. Through a glitch in the naming process, the asteroid received the name "Mimi" instead of "Robelmonte" as originally intended by the discoverer.
Orbit and classification