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
- G. Kulin
- Discovery site
- Konkoly Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 November 1936
- Named after
- Gyula Ortutay , (Hungarian ethnographer )
- Alternative designations
- 1936 TH · 1935 PE, 1947 TD · 1947 VA, 1951 LQ · 1952 QG, 1958 UN · 1958 XR, 1963 SN · 1969 UY, 1971 DB · 1972 HS 1 , 1974 SW 1 · 1975 XT 5 , A908 QB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 108.61 yr (39,668 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.4510 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7602 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1056 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.47 yr (1,999 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 282.90 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 48.36 / day
- Inclination
- 3.0745°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 321.21°
- Argument of perihelion
- 60.334°
- Dimensions
- 42.13 ± 15.15 km , 44.14 ± 15.49 km , 44.69 km (derived) , 48.460 ± 0.215 km , 49.32 ± 0.90 km , 54.117 ± 0.677 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 7.7475 ± 0.0005 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 48.46
- Orbital period
- 1998.820674762328
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A908 QB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1936-11-12
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1156413517285342
- orbital inclination
- 3.079805820345425
- periapsis
- 2.746283480695322
- apoapsis
- 3.464507777044068
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.105395628869695
- mean anomaly
- 103.7104643789465
- longitude of ascending node
- 320.9515479726734
- argument of periapsis
- 59.73148107698191
- absolute magnitude
- 10.88
- albedo
- 0.04
- rotation period
- 7.7475
- time of periapsis
- 2460424.670498917
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
2043 Ortutay, provisional designation 1936 TH, is a dark asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 45 kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was discovered by Hungarian astronomer György Kulin at the Konkoly Observatory, Budapest, on 12 November 1936. It was named after Hungarian ethnographer Gyula Ortutay.
Classification and orbit