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
- G. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 27 October 1916
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ k eɪ ə /
- Named after
- Caia
- Alternative designations
- 1916 Σ 61 · 1973 WH, A908 EB · A919 GB, A921 RA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 99.63 yr (36,389 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.7294 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2611 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.9952 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.18 yr (1,893 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 161.29 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 24.36 / day
- Inclination
- 10.038°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 18.567°
- Argument of perihelion
- 355.23°
- Dimensions
- 81.53 km (derived) , 81.61 ± 4.6 km ( IRAS :12) , 85.02 ± 0.91 km , 87.97 ± 0.97 km , 88.692 ± 0.422 , 88.758 ± 1.405 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 953 Painleva
- Follows
- 951 Gaspra
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 88.692
- Orbital period
- 1890.244038339002
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Grigory Neujmin
- site of astronomical discovery
- Simeiz Observatory
- provisional designation
- A916 US
- time of discovery or invention
- 1916-10-27
- orbital inclination
- 9.989502609085875
- albedo
- 0.047
- rotation period
- 7.5
- absolute magnitude
- 9.5
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2445970494556926
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.991894670131952
- periapsis
- 2.260086061535464
- apoapsis
- 3.723703278728441
- longitude of ascending node
- 18.36405958127616
- argument of periapsis
- 356.9226633471209
- mean anomaly
- 48.55385196580217
- time of periapsis
- 2460745.559363287
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
952 Caia /ˈkeɪə/ is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 82 kilometers (51 miles) in diameter. It was discovered by Soviet–Russian astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Crimean Simeiz Observatory on 27 October 1916 and given the provisional designation 1916 Σ61. It was named after the heroine in the novel Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “952 Caia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.