File:001012-asteroid_shape_model_(1012)_Sarema.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 January 1924
- Named after
- Sarema , (character in opera/poem)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 PM · 1942 VC 1 , 1954 XL · 1954 YF, A907 VQ · A907 WA, A924 AD
~4 min read
Article
1012 Sarema (prov. designation: A924 AD or 1924 PM) is a dark background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 21 kilometers (13 miles) kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 January 1924, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory at Heidelberg, Germany. The asteroid has a rotation period of 10.3 hours and probably an elongated shape. It was named after Sarema, a character in the poem The Fountain of Bakhchisaray by Aleksandr Pushkin, and the protagonist of the opera Sarema by Alexander von Zemlinsky based upon it.
Orbit and classification