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
- S. B. Nicholson
- Discovery site
- Palomar Obs.
- Discovery date
- 23 June 1957
- Pronunciation
- / m ɛ n ə ˈ l eɪ ə s /
- Named after
- Menelaus , (Greek mythology)
- Alternative designations
- 1957 MK
- Minor planet category
- Jupiter trojan , Greek · background
- Adjectives
- Menelaian
- Observation arc
- 65.57 yr (23,949 d)
- Aphelion
- 5.3255 AU
- Perihelion
- 5.1006 AU
- Semi major axis
- 5.2130 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 11.90 yr (4,347 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 101.16 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 4 58.08 / day
- Inclination
- 5.6507°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 240.32°
- Argument of perihelion
- 298.95°
via Wikipedia infobox
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1647 Menelaus /mɛnəˈleɪəs/ is a mid-sized Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 42 kilometers (26 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 23 June 1957 by American astronomer Seth Nicholson at the Palomar Observatory in California and later named after the Spartan King Menelaus from Greek mythology. The dark asteroid has a rotation period of 17.7 hours. It is the principal body of the proposed Menelaus cluster, which encompasses several, mostly tentative Jovian asteroid families.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q141885” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.