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
- Joel Hastings Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Winchester, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 7 February 1913
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ m æ n d ə v ɪ l /
- Alternative designations
- 1913 QR
- Adjectives
- Mandevillean / m æ n d ə ˈ v ɪ l i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 97.78 yr (35714 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1299 AU (468.23 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3445 AU (350.73 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.7372 AU (409.48 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.53 yr (1654.0 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 276.654 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 3.54 / day
- Inclination
- 20.660°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 136.609°
- Argument of perihelion
- 45.543°
- Mean radius
- 53.765 ± 1.25 km , 52.765 ± 0.84 km
- Mass
- (1.16 ± 1.07) × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 104.517
- Orbital period
- 1656.548923307745
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A913 CH
- time of discovery or invention
- 1913-02-07
- orbital inclination
- 20.6669278629939
- albedo
- 0.051
- rotation period
- 23.92
- absolute magnitude
- 8.86
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1423330923394527
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.739915861013241
- periapsis
- 2.349935163765312
- apoapsis
- 3.129896558261169
- longitude of ascending node
- 136.4826385174495
- argument of periapsis
- 44.4001513960735
- mean anomaly
- 297.7608872756113
- time of periapsis
- 2461286.89481992
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
739 Mandeville is a minor planet located in the asteroid belt. Its absolute magnitude is 8.50. It was discovered on 7 February 1913 by Joel Hastings Metcalf in Winchester, Massachusetts, and assigned the provisional code 1913 QR. A later, duplicate discovery was assigned the code 1963 HE.
The orbital characteristics are calculated from the epoch of 4 January 2010, at which time 739 Mandeville had an orbital period of 1656 days and an orbital axis of 2.74 AU with eccentricity 0.14. Thus, its minimum distance from the sun was 2.35 and its maximum was 3.13. Its orbital inclination was found to be 20.71°, and its mean anomaly 116.58°.