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First Photo of Mars's Surface

On July 20, 1976, spacecraft Viking 1 captured this, the first photograph ever taken of the surface of Mars. The photo shows one of three dust-covered footpads of the craft resting on Mars’s dry, rock-littered surface. Cameras strapped on either side of Viking 1’s lander helped scientists calculate distances on the surprisingly Earthlike surface of the red planet.

Photograph courtesy NASA/Viking 1