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
- Felix Aguilar Obs.
- Discovery site
- El Leoncito Complex
- Discovery date
- 3 January 1976
- Named after
- Juan Bussolini, (Argentine Jesuit physicist)
- Alternative designations
- 1976 AG · 1962 WN 2 , 1977 KK · 1978 NT 3 , 1978 QH
~3 min read
Article
2490 Bussolini (prov. designation: 1976 AG) is an Eunomia asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 3 January 1976, by staff members of the Félix Aguilar Observatory at El Leoncito Complex in Argentina. The asteroid was named after Argentine Jesuit physicist Juan Bussolini.
Classification and orbit