not a coincidence, but is the result of a carefully planned time of landing (sun elevation) and lander orientation (sun azimuth). * The picture was started 25 seconds after touchdown and took 15 seconds to acquire. The alternating bright and dark vertical striations at the left side of the image and the fine particles deposited on the footpad at the right side were caused by a turbulent cloud of dust raised by the lander's retrorockets. t *F. O. Huck and S. D. Wall, "Image quality prediction: An aid to the Viking Lander imaging investigation on Mars. " Appl. Opt. 15, 1748-1766 (1976). tT. A....

not a coincidence, but is the result of a carefully planned time of landing (sun elevation) and lander orientation (sun azimuth). * The picture was started 25 seconds after touchdown and took 15 seconds to acquire. The alternating bright and dark vertical striations at the left side of the image and the fine particles deposited on the footpad at the right side were caused by a turbulent cloud of dust raised by the lander's retrorockets. t *F. O. Huck and S. D. Wall, "Image quality prediction: An aid to the Viking Lander imaging investigation on Mars. " Appl. Opt. 15, 1748-1766 (1976). tT. A....