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
- N. Chernykh
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 September 1973
- Named after
- Víctor Jara , (Chilean singer and composer)
- Alternative designations
- 1973 SO 2 · 1979 HD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background
- Observation arc
- 64.04 yr (23,389 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.5286 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8116 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.1701 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.20 yr (1,168 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 10.705 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 18 29.88 / day
- Inclination
- 2.6810°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 347.62°
- Argument of perihelion
- 309.35°
- Mean diameter
- 5.914 ± 0.223 km
- Geometric albedo
- 0.153 ± 0.021
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Víctor Jara
- Followed by
- 2645 Daphne Plane
- Follows
- 2643 Bernhard
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 5.914
- Orbital period
- 1168.663147389289
Show 17 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Nikolai Chernykh
- site of astronomical discovery
- Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1979 HD
- time of discovery or invention
- 1973-09-22
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1648958121373411
- absolute magnitude
- 13.53
- orbital inclination
- 2.68035726674094
- periapsis
- 1.813292825197042
- apoapsis
- 2.529381661534799
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.171337243365921
- mean anomaly
- 153.687479529707
- longitude of ascending node
- 347.5437483553598
- argument of periapsis
- 309.5367220157395
- albedo
- 0.153
- rotation period
- 5.3743
- time of periapsis
- 2460501.5864068293
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2644 Victor Jara, provisional designation 1973 SO2, is an asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 22 September 1973, by Soviet-Russian astronomer Nikolai Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij, on the Crimean peninsula. It was named after Chilean singer and composer Víctor Jara.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “2644 Victor Jara” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.