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
- 16 February 1920
- Pronunciation
- / r æ t ɪ s ˈ b oʊ n ə /
- Named after
- Regensburg , (German city)
- Alternative designations
- A920 DB · 1920 GO, 1958 VD · 1958 XQ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 99.57 yr (36,368 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5095 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.9476 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2285 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.80 yr (2,119 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 88.007 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 11.64 / day
- Inclination
- 14.572°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 7.6887°
- Argument of perihelion
- 171.36°
- Mean diameter
- 67.57 ± 1.3 km 75.892 ± 0.187 km 78.20 ± 1.11 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 928 Hildrun
- Follows
- Q158046
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 75.892
- Orbital period
- 2107.983913472358
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Max Wolf
- site of astronomical discovery
- Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- provisional designation
- A920 DB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1920-02-16
- orbital inclination
- 14.6379749918019
- albedo
- 0.046
- rotation period
- 12.986
- asteroid spectral type
- C-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 9.35
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.09375173452131531
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.217455707506411
- periapsis
- 2.91581365418218
- apoapsis
- 3.519097760830643
- longitude of ascending node
- 7.368326380032275
- argument of periapsis
- 173.1223329627355
- mean anomaly
- 67.51550093360082
- time of periapsis
- 2460605.1622503386
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
927 Ratisbona is a large and dark background asteroid, approximately 76 kilometers (47 miles) in diameter, located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 16 February 1920, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid (CB) has a rotation period of 12.99 hours and is rather spherical in shape. It was named after the Bavarian city of Regensburg.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q158051” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.