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
- C. Jackson
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 9 June 1931
- Named after
- Rhodesia , (former state in southern Africa)
- Alternative designations
- 1931 LD · 1925 AC, 1970 HL
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 93.36 yr (34,098 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5511 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2215 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8863 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.90 yr (1,791 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 323.09 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 3.6 / day
- Inclination
- 12.985°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 255.74°
- Argument of perihelion
- 277.16°
- Dimensions
- 48.0 km × 48.0 km
- Mean diameter
- 47.50 ± 3.4 km , 47.741 ± 0.163 km , 48.92 ± 0.98 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 47.741
- Orbital period
- 1787.214132147635
- Image
- 001197-asteroid shape model (1197) Rhodesia.png
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1970 HL
- time of discovery or invention
- 1931-06-09
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2350367208325103
- orbital inclination
- 12.97797086939903
- periapsis
- 2.204750061572966
- apoapsis
- 3.559579081055678
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.882164571314322
- mean anomaly
- 166.7622790223374
- longitude of ascending node
- 255.6001557241746
- argument of periapsis
- 276.9835040214848
- absolute magnitude
- 10.19
- albedo
- 0.063
- rotation period
- 16.06
- time of periapsis
- 2460172.6113839503
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1197 Rhodesia, provisional designation 1931 LD, is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 48 kilometers (30 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 9 June 1931, by South African astronomer Cyril Jackson at the Union Observatory in Johannesburg. The likely C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 16.1 hours. It was named for Rhodesia, a former British colony and unrecognised state, which is now Zimbabwe.
Orbit and classification