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NASA/JPL/Pathfinder
The last time a spacecraft
successfully touched down on the Martian surface was July 4, 1997. NASA's Mars
Pathfinder then put a nascent Internet to work, flooding it with wonderful color
photographs that the world could, for the first time, peruse without waiting
for the next day's newspaper.
Like the red planet and
the birth of the Internet, the Pathfinder mission seems a world away right now.
The photos, however, are as cool as ever.
This Martian sunset created
a red sky because dust in the thin atmosphere absorbs blue light, leaving the
red to pass through, scientists say. [An
old Viking photo / Mysteries
of the Sun / Mars Rovers]
-- Robert
Roy Britt
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