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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery site
- Vienna
- Discovery date
- 27 March 1922
- Pronunciation
- / p ər s ɛ v ə ˈ r æ n ʃ i ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1922 LT
- Observation arc
- 94.00 yr (34333 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.9205 AU (436.90 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.7459 AU (410.78 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.8332 AU (423.84 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.77 yr (1741.8 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 5.31402 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 24.048 / day
- Inclination
- 2.5597°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 38.717°
- Argument of perihelion
- 56.640°
- Mean radius
- 13.245 ± 0.85 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 7.267 h (0.3028 d )
- Geometric albedo
- 0.1726 ± 0.024
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 976 Benjamina
- Follows
- 974 Lioba
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 22.169
- Orbital period
- 1743.022767257794
Show 18 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Johann Palisa
- site of astronomical discovery
- Vienna Observatory
- provisional designation
- A922 FE
- time of discovery or invention
- 1922-03-27
- albedo
- 0.246
- rotation period
- 7.267
- asteroid spectral type
- S-type asteroid
- absolute magnitude
- 10.6
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.03514342317958304
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.834456232498961
- periapsis
- 2.734843737636243
- apoapsis
- 2.934068727361678
- orbital inclination
- 2.553990944037745
- longitude of ascending node
- 38.64705045643097
- argument of periapsis
- 57.79830849678181
- mean anomaly
- 346.6235115961973
- time of periapsis
- 2461065.2653439827
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
975 Perseverantia /pərsɛvəˈrænʃiə/ is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on 27 March 1922.
This is a member of the dynamic Koronis family of asteroids that most likely formed as the result of a collisional breakup of a parent body. The semi-major axis of the orbit of 975 Perseverantia lies just outside the 5/2 Kirkwood gap, located at 2.824 AU.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “975 Perseverantia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.