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
- B. Jekhovsky
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 27 March 1922
- Named after
- Benjamin Jekhowsky Jr. , (discoverer's son)
- Alternative designations
- A922 FD · A910 AB, 1922 LU · 1910 AB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 109.34 yr (39,935 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5276 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8744 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2010 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.73 yr (2,092 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 43.757 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 19.56 / day
- Inclination
- 7.7121°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 243.76°
- Argument of perihelion
- 319.60°
- Mean diameter
- 79.94 ± 1.16 km 80.53 ± 2.5 km 83.195 ± 0.542 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 9.701 ± 0.002 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 83.195
- Orbital period
- 2083.27934079254
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A922 FD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1922-03-27
- orbital inclination
- 7.726733151681902
- albedo
- 0.052
- rotation period
- 9.701
- absolute magnitude
- 9.43
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1103242867350387
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.192268311394037
- periapsis
- 2.840083586872624
- apoapsis
- 3.54445303591545
- longitude of ascending node
- 242.9955191917523
- argument of periapsis
- 321.7576481060321
- mean anomaly
- 26.90742281608809
- time of periapsis
- 2460844.789783148
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Article
976 Benjamina (prov. designation: A922 FD or 1922 LU) is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 81 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 27 March 1922, by Russian-French astronomer Benjamin Jekhowsky at the Algiers Observatory in North Africa. The large X/D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 9.7 hours and is likely regular in shape. It was named after the discoverer's son.
Orbit and classification