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
- Auguste Charlois
- Discovery date
- 17 March 1893
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ p æ d j u ə /
- Named after
- Padua
- Alternative designations
- 1893 S
- Minor planet category
- Main belt ( Lydia )
- Observation arc
- 121.80 yr (44489 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.94211 AU (440.133 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.55710 AU (382.537 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.74960 AU (411.334 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.56 yr (1665.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 193.817 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 58.219 / day
- Inclination
- 5.94381°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 64.7678°
- Argument of perihelion
- 295.490°
- Dimensions
- 97 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 8.401 h (0.3500 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 97.0
- Orbital period
- 1662.405210213081
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A891 WA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1893-03-17
- orbital inclination
- 5.950233824163073
- albedo
- 0.059
- rotation period
- 8.401
- absolute magnitude
- 9.04
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.07296367302877767
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.746369556702261
- periapsis
- 2.545984346350848
- apoapsis
- 2.946754767053674
- longitude of ascending node
- 64.68726148433466
- argument of periapsis
- 294.4720557221589
- mean anomaly
- 210.6908706190788
- time of periapsis
- 2461689.978540598
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
363 Padua is a main belt asteroid that was discovered by Auguste Charlois on 17 March 1893 in Nice. It was named after the city of Padua (Padova), Italy.
Richard P. Binzel and Schelte Bus further added to the knowledge about this asteroid in a lightwave survey published in 2003. This project was known as Small Main-belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey, Phase II or SMASSII, which built on a previous survey of the main-belt asteroids. The visible-wavelength (0.435-0.925 micrometre) spectra data was gathered between August 1993 and March 1999.