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
Key facts
- Discovered by
- P. Shajn
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 3 October 1935
- Named after
- Abastumani , ( Georgian town)
- Alternative designations
- 1935 TA · 1926 GN, 1929 UL · A907 GN, A916 VA
~3 min read
Article
1390 Abastumani (prov. designation: 1935 TA) is a very large and dark background asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 3 October 1935, by Russian astronomer Pelageya Shajn at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The primitive P-type asteroid has a rotation period of 17.1 hours and measures approximately 101 kilometers (63 miles) in diameter. It was named for the Georgian town of Abastumani.
Orbit and classification