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
- C. Kowal
- Discovery site
- Palomar Obs.
- Discovery date
- 17 October 1974
- Named after
- Loretta Kowal, (daughter of discoverer)
- Alternative designations
- 1974 UC · 1934 JE, 1934 LQ · 1939 EH, 1939 GP · 1950 DT, 1950 ES · 1951 MF, 1955 CA · 1969 TE 5 , 1975 TZ 5 · 1975 XW
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Themistian
- Observation arc
- 67.21 yr (24,547 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5154 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7291 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1222 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.52 yr (2,015 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 24.968 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 43.32 / day
- Inclination
- 0.9058°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 40.473°
- Argument of perihelion
- 189.36°
- Dimensions
- 26.34 ± 0.46 km , 29.08 ± 0.51 km , 29.83 km (derived) , 30.243 ± 0.335 km , 30.365 ± 0.351
- Synodic rotation period
- 25 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 30.365
- Orbital period
- 2017.103767575139
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1975 XW
- time of discovery or invention
- 1974-10-17
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1229850544043363
- orbital inclination
- 0.9043829632337455
- periapsis
- 2.740060824911814
- apoapsis
- 3.508546085773795
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.124303455342805
- mean anomaly
- 200.8165914279224
- longitude of ascending node
- 40.4668698225131
- argument of periapsis
- 189.2114370488941
- absolute magnitude
- 11.16
- albedo
- 0.092
- rotation period
- 23.88
- time of periapsis
- 2461892.415147684
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1939 Loretta, provisional designation 1974 UC, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 17 October 1974, by American astronomer Charles Kowal at Palomar Observatory in California, who named it after his daughter, Loretta Kowal. The discovery of the asteroid took place during Kowal's follow-up observations of Jupiter's moon Leda, which he had discovered one month prior.
Orbit and classification