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
- 13.544
- Orbital period
- 1915.745806555717
- Image
- 005944-asteroid shape model (5944) Utesov.png
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1989 GG
Article · Русский
(5944) Утёсов (лат. Utesov) — типичный астероид главного пояса, который был открыт 2 мая 1984 года советским астрономом Людмилой Карачкиной в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории и назван в честь российского и советского эстрадного артиста Леонида Утёсова. 5944 Utesov Discovered 1984-05-02 by Karachkina, L. G. at Nauchnyj. Named in memory of Leonid Osipovich Utesov (1895—1982), famous Russian singer, musician, actor, founder and artistic leader of the first Russian theatricalized jazz band (1929). The name is given by the discoverer on the occasion of one-hundredth anniversary of Utesov's birth, following a suggestion by L. R. Nemirovskij. REF: DISCOVERY.DB; MPC 24765 — Discovery Circumstances
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA