Facts About Mars

1. Mars has the biggest mountain in the solar system.

It’s called “Olympus Mons” and it’s actually a dormant volcano. Olympus Mons is 15.5 miles high and 372 miles across. To give you an idea, Mt. Everest is between 5 and 6 miles tall. Mars also has the biggest canyon system in the known universe, the “Valles Marineris,” which is 2,500 miles long and 4 miles deep.

2. People have always wondered about life on mars because of the “canals” first seen by early astronomers.

This is why we have always imagined alien invaders coming from there, and not Jupiter or Venus. Actually, Mars is one of the least habitable planets, with freezing temperatures, solar winds, and almost no atmosphere. It is far more likely for there to be life on Venus. The canals seen by early observers are long, straight lines on the planet’s surface that scientists believe are evidence of water.

3. Mars is named after the Roman god of war because its red color reminded early observers of blood.

The reason for the red color is that the soil is composed of iron oxide, or what we commonly call rust.

4. Compared to the other planets in the solar system, Mars is quite small.

It is half the size of earth. Mars has about a third of the earth’s gravity, which means that you can jump three times as high.

5. In the 1970′s, the Viking orbiter took pictures of what appear to be giant faces and pyramids carved into the planet’s surface in the Cydonia region.

The biggest looks like the Sphinx of Egypt and is 2,000 feet high and miles across. While this discovery has gotten UFOlogists excited, scientists say they are just eroded mesas. Many still believe that the faces are too symmetrical to be natural, and that they are evidence of ancient alien civilizations.

6. Mars has some of the wildest weather in the solar system.

It has tremendous wind storms, dust storms and small tornadoes (dust devils). In 2001, a huge dust storm covered the entire planet for several earth days. Scientists are puzzled that a planet with so little atmosphere could have raging storms such as these. They don’t know what causes them, but there are more storms when Mars is close to the sun. When it’s on the farther end of its orbit, there are icy clouds made of carbon dioxide and dust. This is also strange because Mars has no surface water.

7. There has been a search for life on mars, and also a search for water.

After years of studying every crack on the planet’s surface for evidence of water, scientists have finally found it. The Phoenix mission found that there are huge deposits of ice underneath the planet’s surface.

8. Mars has two moons, and one of it is going to crash into it.

The moon Phobos orbits dangerously close to Mars’ atmosphere. Someday, the gravitational pull with smash the moon to bits. The debris will stay in Mars’ orbit, making a ring like the rings of Saturn. Eventually, it will rain down on Mars. Scientists don’t know when this will happen, but predict it will be in the next 50 years.

9. Only 1/3 of all the missions to Mars have been successful.

So many missions have disappeared that it has led scientists to wonder if something strange is happening. They refer to Mars as the “Bermuda Triangle” of the solar system.

In the classical world, Mars was the god of war. In Egypt, it was Horus the Red, or the “backward traveler.” Ancient people all over the world were fascinated by the red planet. The people who studied Mars most closely were probably the ancient Mayans.

Who Is The Mayan Mars?

The Mayan Mars is depicted in ancient engravings as a long nosed monster or animal, hanging from a band that stretches across the sky. It appears to be descending down to earth nose-first. In other places, Mars is depicted in what appears to be a regular human form.

The Mayans And The Wandering Star

The god Mars wasn’t as important to the Mayans as the planet was. Mars the god only appears a few times in Mayan mythology, and his role does not seem to have been a big one. However, the Mayans were able to keep track of Mars’ peculiar orbit better than anyone else on earth.

Egyptians called Mars “the wandering star.” Mars has always baffled ancient astronomers because of its apparent backward motion. Every 25 months or so, it seems to slow down, stop, and start heading the other way. To ancient people, who believed the celestial bodies traveled around the earth, this was strange. This is one reason why Mars has always fascinated people.

The Mayans were the first to figure out Mars’ orbit. In the Dresden Codex, they created a Mars calendar that is accurate to the day. They didn’t know why Mars traveled backwards, but they knew when it would. The Mayans understood perfectly Mars’ relationship with the other celestial bodies.

Mars doesn’t actually travel backwards. Modern astronomy has shown us that Mars’ orbit around the sun is simply slower than the earth’s. Once every 25 months, the earth passes Mars up, and it appears to go backward. It is called “retrograde motion” and other planets do it as well, but less often.

The Mayans-Mars Connection

The Mayan civilization had an uncanny knack for studying the stars and creating perfect calendars. They were the first in the world to figure out that the year has 365 days. This detailed knowledge of the solar system, as well as other supposed evidence, has led many to believe that the Mayans are descendents of an ancient race from Mars.

It sounds like science fiction, but the theory is based on the 1968 bestseller Chariots of the Gods by Erik Von Daniken. The book says that Martians fled their dying planet and came to the earth, the closest planet. It’s a wild theory, but as more evidence of ancient rivers and oceans on Mars emerge, it gains popularity.

Pyramids And UFOs

Others believe there is a Mars-Egypt connection. They believe that the pyramids at Giza were built by extraterrestrials, and they consider the 1976 discovery of what appear to be pyramids and a Sphinx-like face on Mars to be further evidence. Supposedly, these aliens gave the Egyptians superior technology with which to build the pyramids, and the pyramids were used to generate power.

All strange theories aside, the Mayans were the keenest observers of the stars, and of all ancient peoples, they were the most astute at charting Mars’ path.

It’s amazing how early astronomers were able to keenly observe the stars and the neighboring planets with near-accurate calculations considering that they don’t have any instruments aside from their eyes. Imagine them observing the sky for years and knowing exactly where the stars are located. It was when something seems out of place that they start generating conclusions.

During the 1500′s Nicolaus Copernicus theorized that the Earth and the other planets revolves around the sun, contrary to the belief that the Earth is the center of the solar system. He provided a mathematical evidence that suggests the sun to be the center of the solar system. This is an amazing theory that was formulated two hundred years before the telescope was invented.

Tyco Brahe, a Danish astronomer who made an accurate calculation of the position Mars, aslo 200 years before the telescope was invented. He calculated that Mars is within 4 minutes of arc. He formulated this theory in his observatory in Hven, near Coppenhagen.

1600 – The 1600′s was a difficult time for scientists. The church was very particular in their beliefs and are not accepting any changes. Any theory that contradicts the churches beliefs are shrugged and any person contradicting the church is persecuted. Just like Galileo Galilei who was a believer of the Copernican theory. Galileo published a book called Siderius Nuncius (Starry Messenger), which was in contradiction with the church’s beliefs, and got tried and found guilty of heresy. Galileo Galilei was also the first scientist to have observed Mars using a telecope.

1609 – Johannes kepler publishes Astronomia Nova, which contains the laws of planetary motion. In his first law, based on brahes findings, he calculated that Mars has an elliptical orbit. In contrary to the belief that all orbits must be circular.

1659 – Christiaan Huygens theorized that Mars also has a 24 hour period. This is because during his observations, he saw a spot on Mars that seemed to appear at the same time of the day. Huygens was also the first to notice the southern polar caps in 1672. In 1698, Huygens published the book Cosmotheros which details the components needed for a planet to support life. It was also on this book that he explored the possibility of extraterrestrials.

1666 – Giovanni Cassini determines Mars’ day period as 24 hours and 40 minutes.

1700 – During this time scientists enjoyed greater freedom in exploring the solar system. Newton built the first reflector to be used in a telescope. Sir William Herschel, who was an innovator, realizing that larger telescopes are hard to manage built one for himself. He created some of the most advanced telescopes during that time.

1704 – Giancomo Miraldi discovered white spots in Mars. In 1719, he correctly thought if the white spots were ice caps.

1727 – Jonathan Swift’s Gullivers Travels, talks about 2 Martian moons. It could be just a coincidence but we know for a fact that Mars does have 2 moons.

1777-1784 Sir William Herschel, using the telescopes he built, studied Mars and believed that it was inhabited by an intelligent lifeform. He declared Mars’ tilt to be 30 degrees, which is very close to the actual tilt of 25.19 degrees. He assumed that the dark spots in Mars were oceans but later corrected when a faint star passed closely by Mars and its brightness had no effect on the supposed ocean.