The Planetary Report • September/October 1983

Sundown for Viking

On the Cover: The Sun has set on Mars, but twilight lingers, casting a reddish glow on the Martian surface (left) and the top of <i>Viking Lander 1</i> (right). Red dust in the atmosphere scatters the sunlight, producing the color of the sunset. The coloured rings in the sky are not real; they are artifacts of severe contrast enhancement produced by computer processing of the camera's transmitted image.

Features

3 The Last Viking: Long-time science journalist Jonathan Eberhart gives a poetic summary of the Viking mission to Mars.

7 Seeing Through Sand: Charles Elachi and Ronald Blom use radar imaging to peer through desert sands.

10 Venus Revealed: Brown University planetary geophysics graduate students James B. Garvin, Maria T. Zuber, and Paul Helfenstein take us on a photographic tour of the Venusian surface with Venera images.

Departments

13 Society Notes The Hungarian connection.

14 News & Reviews "The Great Extinction" and other mysteries.

15 World Watch Venus Radar Mapper, Galileo, Cassini, and future Soviet mission plans.

The Planetary Report • September/October 1983

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