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
- F. Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 24 January 1914
- Named after
- Johannes Gutenberg , (German inventor)
- Alternative designations
- A914 BF · 1926 EF, A924 YB · 1914 TZ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 105.60 yr (38,570 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5831 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8745 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2288 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.80 yr (2,119 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 79.152 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 11.64 / day
- Inclination
- 12.942°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 283.27°
- Argument of perihelion
- 264.44°
- Dimensions
- 66.0 km × 66.0 km
- Mean diameter
- 65.37 ± 1.03 km 65.57 ± 1.9 km 71.749 ± 0.095 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 71.749
- Orbital period
- 2107.941613695494
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A914 BF
- time of discovery or invention
- 1914-01-24
- orbital inclination
- 12.90606916076665
- albedo
- 0.042
- rotation period
- 12.838
- absolute magnitude
- 9.77
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1171089373418804
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.21741266539627
- periapsis
- 2.840624887161407
- apoapsis
- 3.594200443631134
- longitude of ascending node
- 282.9619358554897
- argument of periapsis
- 265.0442856458983
- mean anomaly
- 59.8266275465068
- time of periapsis
- 2460650.1915616323
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
777 Gutemberga (prov. designation: A914 BF or 1914 TZ) is a dark and large background asteroid, approximately 66 kilometers (41 miles) in diameter, from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Franz Kaiser at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 24 January 1914. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid (Cb) has a rotation period of 12.8 hours. It was named after Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400–1468), who introduced the printing press to Europe and started the Printing Revolution.
Orbit and classification