APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Yogi Rock
Explanation: This portrait of Yogi Rock, a now famous boulder on Mars , was recorded on Sol 3 by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder ( IMP ). Big and friendly looking like its Earth cartoon namesake Yogi Bear, Yogi Rock is a prominent visible feature at the Pathfinder landing site . Yogi and surrounding soil are being examined close up by the Sojourner robot rover. Initial attempts to approach the rock and to place Sojourner's Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer against it have met with some minor, but not unusual, difficulties . It is speculated that the light colored “moat-like” terrain around Yogi is the result of the evaporation of surface water deposited by ancient floods.
| Date | July 11, 1997 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: IMP Team JPL, NASA |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |