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
- H. van Gent
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs. , (Leiden Southern Station)
- Discovery date
- 16 September 1930
- Named after
- Floris-Jan van der Meulen , (Contest Winner)
- Alternative designations
- 1930 SO · 1926 PG, 1928 DN · 1934 VV, 1943 AC · 1949 OF, 1949 ON 1 · 1949 OY, 1951 CW · 1966 BP
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner )
- Observation arc
- 89.19 yr (32,577 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.9545 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9461 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4503 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.84 yr (1,401 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 218.98 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 25.2 / day
- Inclination
- 6.3757°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 123.19°
- Argument of perihelion
- 265.10°
- Dimensions
- 13.743 ± 1.905 km , 13.99 ± 0.23 km , 16.122 ± 4.950 km , 16.21 km (taken) , 16.213 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 0.083 h (fragm.) , 144.85 ± 0.20 h , 145 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q142409
- Follows
- Q142382
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 13.743
- Orbital period
- 1400.692923619273
Show 16 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Hendrik van Gent
- provisional designation
- 1966 BP
- time of discovery or invention
- 1930-09-16
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2060642123234529
- absolute magnitude
- 11.78
- orbital inclination
- 6.376176497405638
- periapsis
- 1.945128888435016
- apoapsis
- 2.954836369781734
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.449982629108375
- mean anomaly
- 270.458496278875
- longitude of ascending node
- 123.1275688216638
- argument of periapsis
- 265.0325746389998
- albedo
- 0.175
- rotation period
- 145.0
- time of periapsis
- 2461348.889307312
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1689 Floris-Jan, provisional designation 1930 SO, is a stony asteroid and a slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Hendrik van Gent in 1930, it was named after a contest winner of an exhibition at Leiden Observatory.
Discovery
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q142388” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.