Venera 9 Took the First Venus Surface Photo

On October 22, 1975, the Soviet lander Venera 9 touched down on Venus and sent back the first photograph ever taken from the surface of another planet. It worked for just 53 minutes on a surface hot enough to melt lead.

The single image shows angular, partly weathered rocks about 30 to 40 centimeters across, many partly buried in soil. The lander sat on a steep, boulder-strewn slope near a region called Beta Regio. Rocks like these look closer to basalt than to granite, which points to a volcanic surface. Venus has a thick atmosphere and a surface pressure about 92 times Earth’s, so surviving even an hour was an engineering feat.