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
- P. Đurković
- Discovery site
- Uccle Obs.
- Discovery date
- 13 April 1936
- Named after
- Milutin Milanković , (Serbian scientist)
- Alternative designations
- 1936 GA · 1925 DC, 1931 KB · 1938 ST, 1941 FA · 1946 FF, 1949 UC 1 · 1968 KP, A907 UB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Eos
- Observation arc
- 80.69 yr (29,472 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2472 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7796 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0134 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.23 yr (1,911 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 310.79 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 18.24 / day
- Inclination
- 10.562°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 173.74°
- Argument of perihelion
- 276.14°
- Dimensions
- 27.78 ± 3.57 km , 29.404 ± 0.197 km , 29.598 ± 0.217 , 32.38 km (derived) , 32.47 ± 1.5 km ( IRAS :6) , 33.80 ± 0.42 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 11.60 ± 0.05 h , 11.63 ± 0.03 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Milutin Milanković
- Followed by
- Q141350
- Follows
- 1604 Tombaugh
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 29.598
- Orbital period
- 1912.145229341658
Show 17 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 1936-04-13
- discoverer or inventor
- Petar Đurković
- site of astronomical discovery
- Royal Observatory of Belgium
- provisional designation
- A907 UB
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.07115584666492944
- orbital inclination
- 10.57828286007922
- periapsis
- 2.800428464799467
- apoapsis
- 3.229492603755168
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.014960534277318
- mean anomaly
- 154.6446242821816
- longitude of ascending node
- 173.5967360812561
- argument of periapsis
- 277.2557627938509
- absolute magnitude
- 10.28
- albedo
- 0.184
- rotation period
- 11.608
- time of periapsis
- 2460179.102831765
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1605 Milankovitch, provisional designation 1936 GA, is an Eoan asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 31 kilometers in diameter. It was named after Serbian scientist Milutin Milanković.
Discovery
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q141335” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.