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
- G. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 April 1913
- Pronunciation
- / s uː l ə ˈ m aɪ t ɪ s /
- Named after
- Shulamite , (Hebrew Bible)
- Alternative designations
- 1913 RL · 1936 FH 1
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Sulamitis
- Observation arc
- 101.01 yr (36,894 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.6457 AU (395.79 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.2795 AU (341.01 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.4626 AU (368.40 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.87 yr (1,412 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 149.88 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 18 / day
- Inclination
- 5.9617°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 85.120°
- Argument of perihelion
- 23.880°
- Mean diameter
- 60.17 ± 0.25 km
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
752 Sulamitis /suːləˈmaɪtɪs/ is an asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) in diameter. It is the parent body of the Sulamitis family (408), a small family of 300 known carbonaceous asteroids. This asteroid is orbiting 2.46 AU from the Sun with a period of 3.87 years and an eccentricity of 0.0743. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 5.96° to the plane of the ecliptic.
Sulamitis was discovered on 30 April 1913 by Georgian–Russian astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula, and given the provisional designation 1913 RL. It was named after the Shulamite, a beautiful woman mentioned in the book Solomon's Song of Songs of the Old Testament. The figure is possibly the Queen of Sheba in the Hebrew Bible.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q156917” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.