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
- L. Boyer
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 27 December 1934
- Named after
- Yvette (discoverer's niece)
- Alternative designations
- 1934 YA · 1930 DO, 1942 GW
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Themis
- Observation arc
- 82.84 yr (30,256 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5930 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7754 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1842 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.68 yr (2,075 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 123.54 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 24.6 / day
- Inclination
- 0.4161°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 345.69°
- Argument of perihelion
- 224.26°
- Dimensions
- 25.87 ± 2.6 km , 28.40 ± 1.70 km , 28.63 ± 0.55 km , 29.451 ± 0.278 km , 30.3 ± 3.0 km , 32 ± 3 km , 33.061 ± 0.632 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 3.525 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Yvette
- Followed by
- 1341 Edmée
- Follows
- 1339 Désagneauxa
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 29.451
- Orbital period
- 2088.742241659386
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Louis Boyer
- site of astronomical discovery
- Center of Research in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics
- provisional designation
- 1942 GW
- time of discovery or invention
- 1934-12-27
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1192705034694851
- absolute magnitude
- 11.21
- orbital inclination
- 0.4096974297547631
- periapsis
- 2.816437750596232
- apoapsis
- 3.579255278173924
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.197846514385078
- mean anomaly
- 281.1341468090054
- longitude of ascending node
- 343.9333749303445
- argument of periapsis
- 227.6097938844801
- albedo
- 0.095
- rotation period
- 3.525
- time of periapsis
- 2461458.0845527346
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1340 Yvette, provisional designation 1934 YA, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 29 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 27 December 1934, by astronomer Louis Boyer at the Algiers Observatory, who named it after his niece, Yvette.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q138210” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.