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
- L. Brožek
- Discovery site
- Kleť Obs.
- Discovery date
- 16 April 1980
- Named after
- Magion 1 , (Czechoslovak satellite )
- Alternative designations
- 1980 HB · 1951 SK, 1953 GC · 1978 TN 7
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background · Phocaea
- Observation arc
- 66.41 yr (24,255 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.7287 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1712 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4499 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.83 yr (1,401 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 35.557 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 25.2 / day
- Inclination
- 25.350°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 186.23°
- Argument of perihelion
- 283.31°
- Mean diameter
- 10.06 km (calculated) , 20.18 ± 1.0 km , 20.83 ± 5.49 km , 21.388 ± 0.121 km , 22.74 ± 0.53 km , 23.824 ± 8.215 km , 25.418 ± 0.186 km
- Synodic rotation period
- 480 ± 6 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Magion 1
- Followed by
- Q549515
- Follows
- Q906856
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- 25.418
- Orbital period
- 1400.581270619376
Show 20 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Ladislav Brožek
- site of astronomical discovery
- Kleť Observatory
- provisional designation
- 1980 HB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1980-04-16
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1153055063886414
- orbital inclination
- 25.34114584295061
- periapsis
- 2.167370955785689
- absolute magnitude
- 12.28
- apoapsis
- 2.732333906032527
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.449852430909108
- mean anomaly
- 35.20642083024065
- longitude of ascending node
- 186.1017612116971
- argument of periapsis
- 283.342106236202
- catalog code
- 1953 GC
- rotation period
- 480
- asteroid spectral type
- X-type asteroid
- apparent magnitude
- 16.75
- albedo
- 0.034
- time of periapsis
- 2460863.529295499
- epoch
- November 21, 2025
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2696 Magion, provisional designation 1980 HB, is a dark background asteroid and a slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 21 kilometers (13 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 16 April 1980, by Slovak astronomer Ladislav Brožek at the Kleť Observatory in former Czechoslovakia. The X-type asteroid has an ambiguous rotation period of 480 hours and is possibly a tumbler. It was named for the first Czechoslovak satellite, Magion 1, launched in 1978.
Orbit and classification
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q912725” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.