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
- C. J. van Houten , I. van Houten-G. , T. Gehrels
- Discovery site
- Palomar Obs.
- Discovery date
- 24 September 1960
- Named after
- Tom Gehrels (astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 4007 P-L · 1937 GN, 1941 BU · 1951 QB, 1958 DA · A905 UE, A923 AA
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Article
1777 Gehrels, also designated 4007 P-L, is a stony asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered during the Palomar–Leiden survey in 1960, and named for astronomer Tom Gehrels, one of the survey's principal investigators and credited discoverer.
Discovery