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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
- T. Smirnova
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 29 August 1973
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ɔɪ l ər /
- Named after
- Leonhard Euler , (Swiss mathematician)
- Alternative designations
- 1973 QQ 1 · 1938 DW, 1942 GJ · 1953 EB, 1973 SJ 2
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner )
- Adjectives
- Eulerian / juː ˈ l ɪər i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 75.04 yr (27,408 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5844 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2512 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4178 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.76 yr (1,373 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 0.3273 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 43.92 / day
- Inclination
- 8.5015°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 178.65°
- Argument of perihelion
- 53.294°
via Wikipedia infobox