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
- 16 March 1936
- Named after
- Pierre (discoverer's nephew)
- Alternative designations
- 1936 FO · 1938 SZ, 1955 TZ · 1959 SH, A917 UB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Eunomia · background
- Observation arc
- 81.30 yr (29,695 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.1355 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0788 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6071 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.21 yr (1,538 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 244.35 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 2.76 / day
- Inclination
- 12.263°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 358.24°
- Argument of perihelion
- 44.290°
- Mean diameter
- 26.16 ± 0.34 km , 26.44 ± 1.6 km , 27.02 ± 5.29 km , 28.94 ± 8.81 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 18 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 26.44
- Orbital period
- 1538.683778929416
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A917 UB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1936-03-16
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2024044884444372
- orbital inclination
- 12.2581126786689
- periapsis
- 2.080415114639837
- apoapsis
- 3.136302092262121
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.608358603450979
- mean anomaly
- 227.0695415868097
- longitude of ascending node
- 358.2114266511991
- argument of periapsis
- 43.89960326998892
- absolute magnitude
- 12.05
- albedo
- 0.0519
- rotation period
- 18.0
- time of periapsis
- 2461568.6609446835
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1392 Pierre, provisional designation 1936 FO, is a dark, dynamical Eunomian asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 26 kilometers (16 mi) in diameter. It was discovered on 16 March 1936, by astronomer Louis Boyer at the Algiers Observatory in Algeria, North Africa. The asteroid was named after the discoverer's nephew, Pierre.
Orbit and classification