615 Roswitha

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

August Kopff

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

11 October 1906

Alternative designations

1906 VR

Observation arc

113.38 yr (41411 d)

Aphelion

2.9221 AU (437.14 Gm )

Perihelion

2.3404 AU (350.12 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.6312 AU (393.62 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

4.26 yr (1559 d )

Mean anomaly

83.6172 °

Mean motion

0° 13 51.024 / day

Inclination

2.7624°

Longitude of ascending node

13.3855°

Time of perihelion

23 November 2024

Argument of perihelion

246.416°

Earth moid

1.325 au

Jupiter moid

2.126 au

Mean diameter

48.626 ± 0.277 km

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of

asteroid

Named after

Hrotsvitha

Followed by

616 Elly

Follows

614 Pia

Parent body

Sun

Minor-planet group

asteroid belt

Diameter

48.626

Orbital period

1559.024798501279

via Wikidata · CC0