Last night NASA landed a rover named Curiosity on Mars. The $2.5 billion mission was a success, but the unlikely star of the landing's live-stream wasn't the rover but a NASA flight director with an unusual haircut. During the webcast viewers noticed a guy with a black, red, and yellow Mohawk and stars colored into the sides. "Mohawk Guy," as he quickly became known, is Bobak Ferdowsi, and he reportedly changes his look for each mission.
Twitter sleuths figured out his account, and in 12 hours it climbed from about 100 followers to over 14,000. One Twitter user wrote, "Extremely thrilled that Mohawk Guy is getting the fame he deserves." Another person noted that his fame might help NASA with recruiting: "If I knew guys like him were into science I might have gone to those boring classes."
A Tumblr blog sprang up overnight as well, with several meme images of Ferdowsi. One read, "Becomes an internet sensation. Too busy landing a robot on Mars to notice." But Ferdowsi did in fact clock the attention. Late last night he wrote on Twitter, "Internet, you win this round. I'll be back later, but thanks so much."
Let us know what hairstyle you think he should try next -- I'm voting for extensions -- on our Facebook page or by following us at @YahooTrending.