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
- 15.049
- Orbital period
- 1669.490789100168
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1987 BE2
- time of discovery or invention
- 1979-04-25
Article · Русский
(3885) Богородский (лат. Bogorodskij) — типичный астероид главного пояса, который был открыт 25 апреля 1979 года советским астрономом Николаем Черных в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории и назван в честь советского астронома Александра Богородского. 3885 Bogorodskij Discovered 1979-04-25 by Chernykh, N. at Nauchnyj. Named in memory of Aleksandr Fyodorovich Bogorodskij (1907—1984), Soviet astrophysicist, director of the Astronomical Observatory of Kiev University, well known for his works on Einsteinian gravitation, solar physics and planetary nebulae. REF: DISCOVERY.DB; MPC 19693 — Discovery Circumstances
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA