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 date
- 10 February 1913
- Pronunciation
- / b oʊ ˈ t ɒ l f i ə /
- Named after
- Saint Botolph
- Alternative designations
- 1913 QT; A909 HA; 1973 GN
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 107.00 yr (39080 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.91350 AU (435.853 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.52742 AU (378.097 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.72046 AU (406.975 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.49 yr (1,638.9 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 8.49527 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 10.758 / day
- Inclination
- 8.41179°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 100.761°
- Argument of perihelion
- 62.7093°
- Mean radius
- 14.82 ± 0.65 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 23.93 h (0.997 d )
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
741 Botolphia is a 29.6-km diameter minor planet (specifically an asteroid) orbiting in the asteroid belt, discovered by American astronomer Joel Hastings Metcalf on 10 February 1913 from Winchester. It is named after Saint Botolph, the semi-legendary founder of a 7th-century monastery that would become the town of Boston, Lincolnshire, England. This asteroid is orbiting at a distance of 2.72 AU from the Sun, with an orbital period of 4.49 yr and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.07. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 8.41° to the ecliptic.
Photometric data collected during 2007 were used to produce an asteroid light curve showing a rotation period of 23.93±0.02 h, with a brightness amplitude of 0.015 in magnitude. This result is consistent with earlier results by independent observers. 741 Botolphia was initially classified as an X-type asteroid, but it may instead belong to the M-type taxonomy.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q156862” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.