Can’t see the video below? Click here.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Here’s an intriguing video assembled by Daniel Macháček, made from archived image data from NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter; on September 28, 1977, over a year after dropping a probe onto the Martian surface, the orbiter captured images of the shadow of Mars’ moon Phobos passing over the billowy top of a dust storm. Daniel colorized these images and created the video above…nice work!

Viking 1 was the first of two missions to Mars in the program. Launched on August 20, 1975, it arrived at Mars in June of 1976 and successfully dropped a lander on July 20, which sent us back the first images ever taken of the Martian surface.

Read more about this video on Bad Astronomy.

Image Data: NASA/JPL. Processing: Daniel Macháček