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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 1 March 1919
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈanəliːzə ]
- Named after
- Anneliese, friend of astronomer Julius Dick
- Alternative designations
- A919 EC · 1946 SJ, 1975 AH · A924 BD, 1919 FB · 1924 BD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 100.93 yr (36,864 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3765 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.4747 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.9256 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.00 yr (1,828 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 340.99 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 49.2 / day
- Inclination
- 9.2090°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 49.936°
- Argument of perihelion
- 208.47°
- Mean diameter
- 47.07 ± 4.5 km 48.590 ± 0.216 km 48.85 ± 0.57 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 911 Agamemnon
- Follows
- 909 Ulla
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 48.59
- Orbital period
- 1826.711814486689
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A919 EC
- time of discovery or invention
- 1919-03-01
- orbital inclination
- 9.214324128031436
- albedo
- 0.057
- rotation period
- 11.2863
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 10.49
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1565114482443113
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.92447383760603
- periapsis
- 2.466760201929711
- apoapsis
- 3.382187473282348
- longitude of ascending node
- 49.79379289273212
- argument of periapsis
- 207.5476928489006
- mean anomaly
- 16.15460041007077
- time of periapsis
- 2460918.528334924
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
910 Anneliese (prov. designation: A919 EC or 1919 FB) is a dark background asteroid, approximately 48 kilometers (30 miles) in diameter, located in the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 1 March 1919, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid (Ch) has a rotation period of 11.3 hours and is likely spherical in shape. It was named by German astronomer Julius Dick after his friend "Anneliese".
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q157836” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.