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
- 20 September 1930
- Pronunciation
- / r ɒ ˈ l æ n d i ə /
- Named after
- Romain Rolland , (French writer)
- Alternative designations
- 1930 SH · 1926 GC 1 , 1931 VY · 1936 LE, 1961 PB · A902 EA, A906 SA · A907 WB, A918 EG
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Hilda · background
- Observation arc
- 117.19 yr (42,804 d)
- Aphelion
- 4.2910 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.5136 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.9023 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 7.71 yr (2,816 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 352.88 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 7 40.44 / day
- Inclination
- 2.7586°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 134.71°
- Argument of perihelion
- 19.460°
- Jupiter moid
- 0.7004 AU
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 104.893
- Orbital period
- 2836.177584077035
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A918 EG
- time of discovery or invention
- 1930-09-20
- orbital inclination
- 2.758844985511689
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09659933429333
- albedo
- 0.048
- absolute magnitude
- 8.77
- periapsis
- 3.54245004936791
- apoapsis
- 4.300028230403752
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.921239139885831
- mean anomaly
- 302.5089990469089
- longitude of ascending node
- 134.5726882045834
- argument of periapsis
- 16.83749462417953
- rotation period
- 60.45
- time of periapsis
- 2461453.429689415
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
1269 Rollandia, provisional designation 1930 SH, is a dark Hildian asteroid from the outermost region of the asteroid belt, approximately 105 kilometers (65 mi) in diameter. It was discovered on 20 September 1930, by Soviet astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named after French writer Romain Rolland. The D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 17.4 hours. It was one of the last 100-kilometer sized asteroids discovered in the main belt.
Orbit and classification