Mars, The Bringer of War

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Once thought to harbor our nearest neighbors, this planet is now being claimed as our best bet at finding local extraterrestrial life. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, with a thin atmosphere composed of 95% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen and 1.6% argon. The atmospheric pressure is only 1 to 2% of the average pressure on Earth. Because Mars is further away from the Sun, it receives less solar radiation. When coupled with a thin atmosphere, it's average surface temperature is lower than earth's. Mars is like a very cold high altitude desert. Mars has no detectable magnetic field. It has two satellites.

It is currently suspected of having seas as recent as 5 to 10 million years ago. This planet caught the attention of ancient observers many years ago because this wondering star would change direction of travel during the year. The ancients believed the motion was an aggressive tendency and that along with its color gave rise to the planet's association with warring or aggressiveness.

At one time Mars was thought to have running water on the surface. In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli using the most modern telescopes of the time, described countless channels on Mars' surface. An American astronomer by the name of Percival Lowell maintained that claimed that the channels were canals built by intelligent beings to irrigate the dry planet. In the end, the observations were merely extrapolations past the resolution of instruments of the day.

Since the planet has no discernable magnetic field, it has no Van Allen radiation belt. Therefore the full brunt of charged particles and radiation makes it to the surface. Lethal amounts of ultraviolet light make it to the surface. Also photochemistry produces hydrogen peroxide which is also very deadly to life. Any chance that there is life on Mars is paper-thin. In 1996, scientists found a meteorite fragment in Antarctica that is claimed to originate from Mars. In addition, these scientists claimed that the rock contained fossilized evidence of bacteria.

There have been some spectacular missions to Mars in the last few years. Mars Pathfinder, landed on July 3^rd 1997 and over the course of 2 months, sent back more data than has ever been captured from the surface of another planet. NASA is still processing and will continue to interpret the data for years to come.   Included in this data are x-ray spectrographic analysis of several rocks on the surface of the planet. These revealed a striking resemblance to rock found on earth. The analyses were carried out by equipment mounted on a small rover that moved from rock to rock. Mars Global Surveyor is providing the most detailed maps of the red planet. 

Another more recent set o mission to Mars that has brought much attention are the Spirit and Opportunity Missions.  These rovers landed in January 2004 and have been operating at the time of this writing for nearly a year and a half (May 2005).  These missions landed on separate sites on the surface and are equipped with similarly amazing arrays of instrumentation as the Pathfinder mission.  One thing that sets these two rovers apart from the Pathfinder mission is the fact that both rovers have a mast twin panoramic and standard imaging cameras.  These two cameras are separated by the average distance the human eyes are separated giving a full color 3D view of the planet wherever it goes.  There has been a staggering number of images taken and much data obtained, including the finding that there was definitely water on the surface of Mars at some point in the past due to undeniable geologic and chemical makeup of many of the rocks.

All of the attention to the planet over the past decade may be a move to determine the best location for a manned landing. NASA has been hinting at such a mission for twenty or so years.

Mars is about half the size of the Earth, but as planets go, it does have some spectacular features. One is Olympus Mons. This volcanic mountain is much taller than Mount Everest and at the base would stretch most of the way across the U.S.A. Additionally, the planet has a canyon that dwarfs the Grand Canyon on Earth. Mars is the only other planet that has discernable polar ice caps. These ice caps are presumably carbon dioxide and water vapor ice on the poles. Mars also experiences seasons like on Earth. The polar ice caps get larger during Martian winter and become smaller during the Martian summer. This can be seen by looking at the planet with a medium sized amateur telescope over a period of months.

With the advent of detailed radar mapping, many of the surface features of this "War Bringer" are now being resolved under the specter of high resolution.

An A.U. is the distance from the sun to the earth (9.3x10⁷ miles). Oblateness is the fraction by which the equatorial diameter exceeds the polar diameter. Albedo is the fraction of light reflected off of an object.