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.
Mars: A Journey's End
Explanation: Mars Pathfinder is nearing the end of its 7 month journey. The robot spacecraft is scheduled to use parachutes, rockets, and airbags to “bouncedown” on the red planet tomorrow - July 4th . This Hubble Space Telescope image of Mars was taken a few days ago to check on the weather. The pathfinder landing site , on the ancient floodplain Ares Vallis, is just right of center - 500 miles southeast of where Viking 1 landed in 1976. Along with the martian north polar cap , some water ice clouds are visible in both the northern and southern hemisphere . About 600 miles south of the landing site a dust storm can be seen as a brownish ribbon stretching through the the Valles Marineris, a continent sized canyon system. Fortunately, the dust storm is not expected to seriously affect operations at the landing site.
| Date | July 3, 1997 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: P. James and M. Wolff (U. Toledo), S. Lee (U. Colorado), NASA |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |