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
- Y. Väisälä
- Discovery site
- Turku Obs.
- Discovery date
- 24 February 1938
- Named after
- Pierre Louis Maupertuis , (French mathematician)
- Alternative designations
- 1938 DZ · 1961 TP, 1970 AP · 1979 TV
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Vesta · Flora
- Observation arc
- 86.03 yr (31,422 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.5798 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1203 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3501 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.60 yr (1,316 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 20.991 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 24.96 / day
- Inclination
- 5.9904°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 348.46°
- Argument of perihelion
- 240.52°
- Mean diameter
- 5.482 ± 0.043 km , 5.680 ± 0.031 km , 7.14 km (calculated)
- Synodic rotation period
- 6.7295 ± 0.0001 h , 6.729 84 ± 0.000 01 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
- Followed by
- Q631767
- Follows
- 3280 Grétry
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 5.482
- Orbital period
- 1315.701760843152
- Image
- 003281-asteroid shape model (3281) Maupertuis.png
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Yrjö Väisälä
- site of astronomical discovery
- Iso-Heikkilä Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1979 TV
- time of discovery or invention
- 1938-02-24
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09865942748954076
- orbital inclination
- 5.982733286472161
- periapsis
- 2.118011302466667
- apoapsis
- 2.58168017279329
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.349845737629979
- mean anomaly
- 66.06204536003722
- longitude of ascending node
- 348.360606146106
- argument of periapsis
- 241.5104520892652
- absolute magnitude
- 12.98
- albedo
- 0.489
- rotation period
- 6.7295
- time of periapsis
- 2460759.0612516524
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
3281 Maupertuis (prov. designation: 1938 DZ) is a bright Vesta asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 24 February 1938, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at the Turku Observatory in southwest Finland. The likely elongated V-type asteroid has a rotation period of 6.7 hours and measures approximately 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) in diameter. It was named after French geodesist and mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q151213” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.