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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 November 1918
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ r oʊ d ə /
- Named after
- Rhoda Barnard, (wife of E. E. Barnard )
- Alternative designations
- A918 VA · A901 BA, A913 SC · 1918 EU, 1913 SC · 1901 BA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , background
- Observation arc
- 118.67 yr (43,343 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2553 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3468 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8010 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.69 yr (1,712 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 183.55 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 36.72 / day
- Inclination
- 19.525°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 42.980°
- Argument of perihelion
- 88.326°
- Mean diameter
- 62.73 ± 1.7 km 63 ± 1 km 75.22 ± 0.83 km 82.660 ± 0.340 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 82.66
- Orbital period
- 1709.731750017278
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A918 VA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1918-11-12
- orbital inclination
- 19.5334055693053
- albedo
- 0.032
- absolute magnitude
- 9.93
- rotation period
- 22.467
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1644284528320342
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.7982490600348
- periapsis
- 2.338137296454584
- apoapsis
- 3.258360823615016
- longitude of ascending node
- 42.90590263313555
- argument of periapsis
- 88.52784115656381
- mean anomaly
- 244.3023299643724
- time of periapsis
- 2461549.9777218415
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
907 Rhoda is a large background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, that measures approximately 75 kilometers (47 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 12 November 1918, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The dark C/X-type asteroid has a long rotation period of 22.4 hours and is likely spherical in shape. It was named after Rhoda Barnard, wife of American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard (1857–1923).
Orbit and classification