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
- W. Lorenz
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 22 January 1909
- Alternative designations
- 1909 FS
- Observation arc
- 103.26 yr (37,715 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1352 AU (469.02 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.0122 AU (301.02 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.5737 AU (385.02 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.13 yr (1,508.1 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 73.755 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 19.356 / day
- Inclination
- 6.0824°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 281.416°
- Argument of perihelion
- 120.267°
- Mean radius
- 20.90 ± 1 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 11.61624 h (0.484010 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.2494 ± 0.026
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
678 Fredegundis is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered 22 January 1909 from Heidelberg by German astronomer K. Wilhelm Lorenz, and was named after the French opera Frédégonde. This object is orbiting at a distance of 2.57 AU with a period of 4.13 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.22. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 6.1° to the plane of the ecliptic
This appears to be an M-type asteroid in the Tholen classification and X-type in the Bus and Binzel system. It spans a girth of approximately 42 km and is spinning with a rotation period of 11.6201 hours. Radar observations suggest a bifurcated structure consistent with a contact binary.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q156436” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.