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
- J. Palisa
- Discovery site
- Vienna Obs.
- Discovery date
- 26 September 1914
- Named after
- unknown
- Alternative designations
- A914 SF · 1940 GY, 1946 UR · 1951 UR, 1958 JC · 1914 VE
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) background
- Observation arc
- 102.89 yr (37,580 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.0304 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.4674 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7489 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.56 yr (1,665 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 206.63 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 58.68 / day
- Inclination
- 19.051°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 17.377°
- Argument of perihelion
- 190.18°
- Dimensions
- 75.0 km × 75.0 km
- Mean diameter
- 74.66 ± 1.4 km 76.201 ± 1.634 km 79.36 ± 1.05 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 85.263
- Orbital period
- 1667.454283966035
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A914 SF
- time of discovery or invention
- 1914-09-26
- orbital inclination
- 19.02481720337471
- albedo
- 0.027
- rotation period
- 51.4
- absolute magnitude
- 10.06
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09970685420009301
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.751927612989417
- periapsis
- 2.477541567711872
- apoapsis
- 3.026313658266963
- longitude of ascending node
- 17.25037901556252
- argument of periapsis
- 189.8987421058027
- mean anomaly
- 279.3021631675665
- time of periapsis
- 2461374.2776492583
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Article
795 Fini (prov. designation: A914 SF or 1914 VE) is a dark and large background asteroid, approximately 76 kilometers (47 miles) in diameter, located in the central region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Vienna Observatory on 26 September 1914. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a poorly determined rotation period of 9.3 hours and seems rather spherical in shape. Any reference of the asteroid's name to a person is unknown.
Orbit and classification