Viking 1 Photograph of Mars

Date: July 25, 1976 • Location: Rome, Italy

The orbiting spacecraft Viking 1 took a photograph of an apparent face on Mars in a classic example of pareidolia.

Viking 1 is the first of two spacecraft, along with Viking 2, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander, sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. The lander touched down on Mars on July 20, 1976, the first successful Mars lander in history. Viking 1 operated on Mars for 2,307 days or 2245 Martian solar days, the longest extraterrestrial surface mission until the record was broken by the Opportunity rover on May 19, 2010.