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
- 4.404
- Orbital period
- 1237.460831435458
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1988 RQ3
- time of discovery or invention
- 1978-10-03
Article · Русский
(5543) Шараф (лат. Sharaf) — типичный астероид главного пояса, который был открыт 3 октября 1978 года советским астрономом Николаем Черных в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории и назван в честь советского астронома . 5543 Sharaf Discovered 1978-10-03 by Chernykh, N. S. at Nauchnyj. Named in honor of Shafika Gil'mievna Sharaf (b. 1915), well known expert on celestial mechanics and staff member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy from 1939 to 1986. She co-developed an analytical theory of Pluto using the Laplace-Newcomb method and determined new orbital elements for the planet. Later she investigated the secular variations of solar radiation incident upon given area of the earth's surface caused by perturbations of the earth's orbit. Name suggested by the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy. REF: DISCOVERY.DB; MPC 30476 — Discovery Circumstances
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