Image: Mars Viking 11h016

Description: This picture was taken by the Viking Lander 1 on February 11, 1978 on Sol 556. The large rock just left of the center is about two meters wide. This rock was named "Big Joe" by the Viking scientists. The top of the rock is covered with red soil. Those portions of the rock not covered are similar in color to basaltic rocks on Earth. Therefore, this may be a fragment of a lava flow that was ejected by an impact crater. The part of the Lander that is visible in the lower left is the cover of the nuclear power supply.
Title: Mars Viking 11h016
Credit: Own work based on images in the NASA Viking image archive
Author: "Roel van der Hoorn (Van der Hoorn)"
Permission: I used the original 11h016.blu, 11h016.grn and 11h016.red images from the NASA Viking image archive, converted them to .png, manually removed the noise and finally merged them into one image. Except for the conversion, this was all done in Adobe Photoshop CS2. The original files by NASA are in the public domain, and so is this new one.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No