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
- 23.671
- Orbital period
- 1401.236988500526
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- A924 EB
- time of discovery or invention
- 1974-02-19
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.08953287489250132
- orbital inclination
- 7.185823810431913
- periapsis
- 2.231206225564335
- apoapsis
- 2.670027798236133
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.450617011900234
- mean anomaly
- 58.06171914626211
- longitude of ascending node
- 22.71922028934225
- argument of periapsis
- 255.91851737312
- absolute magnitude
- 12.19
- albedo
- 0.072
- rotation period
- 20.3
- time of periapsis
- 2460774.504920879
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
Article · Deutsch
(3109) Machin ist ein Asteroid des Hauptgürtels, der am 19. Februar 1974 vom tschechischen Astronomen Luboš Kohoutek an der Hamburger Sternwarte (IAU-Code 029) im Hamburger Stadtteil Bergedorf entdeckt wurde. Der Asteroid wurde am 4. Mai 1999 nach dem britischen Designer von Münzen und Briefmarken Arnold Machin (1911–1999) benannt, der 1964 das für die neuen Dezimalmünzen Englands verwendete Porträt der Königin Elisabeth II. von Großbritannien entwarf. Dieser Entwurf fand auch bei den britischen Briefmarken Verwendung, die seit 1967 bis heute (2014) ausgegeben werden.
Abstract from DBpedia / Wikipedia · CC BY-SA