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
Wikidata facts
- Orbital period
- 1303.474780800586
Show 13 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 2004-01-23
- provisional designation
- 2004 BV58
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.218970194100127
Article · Deutsch
(144096) Wiesendangen ist ein etwa ein Kilometer messender Hauptgürtelasteroid, der am 23. Januar 2004 von Markus Griesser, dem langjährigen Leiter der Winterthurer Sternwarte Eschenberg, entdeckt wurde. Anfang April 2007 wurde der Asteroid mit offizieller Zustimmung der Internationalen Astronomischen Union (IAU) nach dem Dorf Wiesendangen bei Winterthur benannt, in dem der Entdecker des Asteroiden mit seiner Familie seit mehr als 30 Jahren wohnt.
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA