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
- 12.693
- Orbital period
- 1566.390222419964
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1988 VE
- time of discovery or invention
- 1975-11-02
Article · Русский
(4467) Кайдановский (лат. Kaidanovskij) — типичный астероид главного пояса, который был открыт 2 ноября 1975 года советским астрономом Тамарой Смирновой в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории и назван в честь советского и российского астронома Наума Кайдановского. 4467 Kaidanovskij Discovered 1975-11-02 by Smirnova, T. M. at Nauchnyj. Named in honor of Naum L'vovich Kaidanovskij (b. 1907), a pioneer of radio astronomy, who began his research in solar and galactic radio astronomy as early as 1948. In 1955 he co-founded the radio astronomy department at Pulkovo Observatory, the first in Russia. Kaidanovskij is well known for his designs of radio-telescope and he was principal designer of the largest radio telescope, RATAN-600, at Zelenchukskaya. Name suggested by the Institute of Applied Astronomy. REF: DISCOVERY.DB; MPC 30475 — Discovery Circumstances
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