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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

Max Wolf

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

20 September 1916

Alternative designations

1916 AC

Observation arc

91.86 yr (33551 d)

Aphelion

3.3747 AU (504.85 Gm )

Perihelion

2.6441 AU (395.55 Gm)

Semi major axis

3.0094 AU (450.20 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

5.22 yr (1906.8 d )

Mean anomaly

21.7501 °

Mean motion

0° 11 19.68 / day

Inclination

9.7887°

Longitude of ascending node

353.163°

Argument of perihelion

35.937°

Earth moid

1.65365 AU (247.383 Gm)

Jupiter moid

2.12807 AU (318.355 Gm)

Synodic rotation period

12.090 h (0.5038 d )

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of

asteroid

Followed by

834 Burnhamia

Follows

832 Karin

Parent body

Sun

Minor-planet group

asteroid belt

Diameter

21.99

Orbital period

1909.54385000726

via Wikidata · CC0