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
- 8.554
- Orbital period
- 1780.004595218381
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1986 LL1
- time of discovery or invention
- 1978-10-03
Article · Русский
(5303) Парийский (лат. Parijskij) — типичный астероид главного пояса, который был открыт 3 октября 1978 года советским астрономом Николаем Черных в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории и назван в честь советского и российского астронома Юрия Парийского. 5303 Parijskij Discovered 1978-10-03 by Chernykh, N. S. at Nauchnyj. Named in honor of Yurij Nikolaevich Parijskij (b. 1932), radio astronomer and cosmologist. He was principal scientific investigator during the design and construction of the largest radio telescope, RATAN-600, at Zelenchukskaya, and he is now head of the radio astronomy department of the Special Astrophysical Observatory. Name proposed by the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy and the Institute of Applied Astronomy. REF: DISCOVERY.DB; MPC 30476 — Discovery Circumstances
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