| The face of Mars |
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| The Hubble Space Telescope focuses on the full disk of Mars, with a head-on view of a dark feature known as Syrtis Major. Hubble astronomers could make out features as small as 12 miles wide. |
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Red, white and blue planet Two decades before Pathfinder, the Viking 1 lander sent back America’s first pictures from the Martian surface. This 1976 picture shows off the lander’s U.S. flag and a Bicentennial logo as well as the planet’s landscape. |
| Grand canyon |
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| This is a composite of Viking orbiter images that shows the Valles Marineris canyon system. The entire system measures more than 1,875 miles long and has an average depth of 5 miles. |
| Red rover |
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| A mosaic of eight pictures shows the Pathfinder probe’s Sojourner rover just after it rolled off its ramp. At lower right you can see one of the airbags that cushioned Pathfinder’s landing on July 4, 1997. |
| Twin Peaks at their peak |
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| The Pathfinder probe focuses on Twin Peaks, two hills of modest height on the Martian horizon. Each peak rises about 100 feet above the surrounding rock-littered terrain |
| Blue horizon |
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| A Martian sunset reverses the colors you’d expect on Earth: Most of the sky is colored by reddish dust hanging in the atmosphere, but the scattering of light creates a blue halo around the sun itself. |
| Two-faced Mars |
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| The image at left, captured by a Viking orbiter in the 1970s, sparked speculation that Martians had constructed a facelike monument peering into space. But the sharper image at right, sent back in 1998 by Mars Global Surveyor, spoiled the effect. |
