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
- Diameter
- 7.712
- Orbital period
- 1581.692080401757
Show 14 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 1977-01-13
- provisional designation
- 1998 WA24
Article · Русский
(26793) Большой (лат. Bolshoi) — типичный астероид главного пояса, который был открыт 13 января 1977 года советским астрономом Николаем Черных в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории и в 2008 году назван в честь Большого театра. 26793 Bolshoi Discovered 1977 Jan. 13 by N. S. Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. Located in the center of Moscow, the Bolshoi Theater of opera and ballet is the largest in Russia and one of the most significant in the world. Its history began in 1776, when the province procurator prince Petr Vasil'evich Urusov received the decree of Catherine II and started building the theater. REF: 20080122/MPCPages.arc; MPC 61765 — Discovery Circumstances
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA