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. van Biesbroeck
- Discovery site
- Yerkes Obs.
- Discovery date
- 2 December 1923
- Named after
- George Ellery Hale , (American astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- A923 YO 13
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 89.22 yr (32,587 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5095 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2230 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8663 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.85 yr (1,772 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 173.74 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 11.16 / day
- Inclination
- 16.090°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 58.856°
- Argument of perihelion
- 307.94°
- Mean diameter
- 28.46 ± 6.70 km , 41.28 km (derived) , 43.274 ± 0.148 km , 45.964 ± 17.12 km , 47.33 ± 8.98 km , 47.674 ± 0.893 km , 48.18 ± 0.78 km , 51.37 ± 15.55 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 16.0 ± 0.1 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 43.274
- Orbital period
- 1774.668379864497
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 2019 GN23
- time of discovery or invention
- 1923-12-02
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.2210575083143578
- albedo
- 0.045
- orbital inclination
- 16.06807255098053
- periapsis
- 2.234521743942937
- apoapsis
- 3.502799734327946
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.868660739135442
- mean anomaly
- 21.0908452698086
- longitude of ascending node
- 58.78112702639926
- argument of periapsis
- 308.2645686583771
- absolute magnitude
- 10.92
- rotation period
- 106.047
- time of periapsis
- 2460896.529843875
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
1024 Hale, provisional designation A923 YO13, is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 2 December 1923, by Belgian–American astronomer George Van Biesbroeck at the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, United States. It was named for American astronomer George Ellery Hale. The dark C-type asteroid may have a rotation period of 16 hours.
Orbit and classification