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
- S. J. Bus
- Discovery site
- Siding Spring Obs.
- Discovery date
- 2 March 1981
- Named after
- Marc Chagall
- Alternative designations
- 1981 EE 20 · 1954 LF, 1977 RN 3
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Themis
- Observation arc
- 62.48 yr (22,822 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.6918 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6122 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1520 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.60 yr (2,044 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 92.248 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 33.96 / day
- Inclination
- 0.8657°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 185.87°
- Argument of perihelion
- 99.029°
- Dimensions
- 15.489 ± 0.617
- Synodic rotation period
- 0.11232 h
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 15.489
- Orbital period
- 2032.712369721298
Show 14 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1981 EE20
- time of discovery or invention
- 1981-03-02
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1790605103890534
- absolute magnitude
- 12.72
- orbital inclination
- 0.8751745218696558
- periapsis
- 2.578078571437516
- apoapsis
- 3.702721911578107
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.140400241507811
- mean anomaly
- 261.6136725867514
- longitude of ascending node
- 185.97153092
- argument of periapsis
- 98.46667748200792
- albedo
- 0.117
- rotation period
- 9.5
- time of periapsis
- 2461556.030846512
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
2981 Chagall, provisionally designated 1981 EE20, is a Themistian asteroid from the asteroid belt, discovered on 2 March 1981 by American astronomer Schelte Bus at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.
The asteroid was named after the Russian-French painter Marc Chagall (1887–1985).