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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 18 January 1901
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈliːnaː ]
- Named after
- (household employee)
- Alternative designations
- 1901 FZ · A915 PA, A918 EB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Themis
- Observation arc
- 115.81 yr (42,300 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.7509 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5136 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1323 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.54 yr (2,025 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 64.042 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 40.08 / day
- Inclination
- 0.4371°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 21.472°
- Argument of perihelion
- 333.20°
- Dimensions
- 58.60 ± 14.75 km , 59.7 ± 0.5 km , 59.80 ± 0.89 km , 60.238 ± 0.518 km , 63.4 ± 12.7 km , 64.592 ± 1.981 km , 66 ± 7 km , 69.34 ± 2.5 km ( IRAS :6)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 60.238
- Orbital period
- 2028.769495141953
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A901 BC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1901-01-18
- albedo
- 0.057
- rotation period
- 16.33
- absolute magnitude
- 9.8
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1948738174904903
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.136337948221402
- periapsis
- 2.525147799311206
- apoapsis
- 3.747528097131599
- orbital inclination
- 0.435622663618187
- longitude of ascending node
- 21.55120260641075
- argument of periapsis
- 332.2172156504116
- mean anomaly
- 273.5855605081635
- time of periapsis
- 2461487.486052169
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
468 Lina, provisional designation 1901 FZ, is a dark Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 18 January 1901, by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The carbonaceous asteroid was named for the housemaid of the discoverer's family.
Classification and orbit