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About Mars: General Information | How was Mars discovered? | Geological History | Ancient Mythology
Mars is a planet visible to the naked eye, and hence was "discovered" before recorded history. For thousands of years it was only a red dot among the stars. When it came closer to the Earth and shone like a burning coal in the night, it must have roused terror among primitive sky watchers. By the time the Egyptians settled their civilization along the banks of the Nile, Mars had become familiar enough to receive a name: “ Har décher ”, the Red One. The Babylonians called Mars as “ Nergal ”, the Star of Death. The Greeks also associated it with warfare and bloodshed. The Greeks called Mars Ares, the war god, while the Romans called it Mars, the god of war.
Although the Babylonians made careful astronomical observations and developed a sophisticated system of arithmetical computations for predicting astronomical events such as eclipses, their purposes were strictly calendrical and religious. The Babylonians did not attempt to explain the reasons for any of the movements they observed. It was the early Greeks who first took a more rational perspective. They identified Mars as one of the five "wandering" stars, or planets, which move relative to the "fixed" stars.
For many years, the vast distance separating Earth from the red planet restricted our observations of Mars. Until the launching of probes to Mars, much of what was "known" about Mars was based on fuzzy pictures that showed only large-scale planetary features.
Babylonians observed Mars, and called it “Nergal”, the Star of Death.
The Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe (1546 - 1601) made amazingly accurate calculations of the position of Mars without using a telescope. Using just keen eyesight and large instruments, he calculated the position of Mars to within four minutes of arc!
After years of effort, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) calculated that the orbit of Mars was actually an ellipse, not a circle. This was a revolutionary idea at the time, as until then, the common belief held by most astronomers was that all planetary orbits are circular.He soon recognized that all other planetary orbits are elliptical.
Galileo Galileo (1564 - 1642) observes Mars with a primitive telescope, becoming the first person to use it for astronomical purposes.
The Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 1695) draws Mars using an advanced telescope of his own design. He calculated that a Martian day is nearly 24 hours, like that of the Earth.
Giancomo Miraldi observes "white spots" at the Martian poles.
Due to the availability of better telescopes, astronomers began to observe more features on the surface of Mars. In 1840, the German astronomers Wilhelm Beer and Johann Maedler published the first complete (although crude) map of Mars.
Asaph Hall at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington discovered two tiny moons orbiting close to Mars. He named them Phobos and Deimos which means "fear" and "panic", respectively in Greek.
In 1877, Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835 - 1910) announces that he has seen "cannali" on Mars. If translated correctly, this announcement would have been interpreted as "channels". However, due to the excitement over the Suez Canal, it was translated as "canals". Hence, people came to a conclusion that Mars has intelligent life that has built a system of canals!
Of the 22,000 or so meteorites that have been discovered on Earth, only 30 have been identified as originating from the planet Mars. In 1996, NASA announced that evidence of dead, fossil bacteria and chemical traces that might have come from bacteria is present in one of these Mars meteorites named ALH 84001.
ALH 84001 is a meteorite, a rock that fell to Earth from space. The best estimate is that ALH 84001 landed on Earth, in Antarctica, about 13,000 years ago. ALH 84001 was found in Antarctica during the 1984-1985 Antarctic summer by a team of meteorite hunters. When it was found, ALH 84001 weighed about 4.75 pounds (1.93 kilograms). It was shaped like a rounded brick or a large potato, about 6 inches long by 4 inches by 3 inches.
ALH 84001 formed originally from molten lava, about 4.5 billion years ago, possibly from an ancient martian volcano. ALH 84001 is an igneous rock, similar to many that crystallized from lava inside the Earth. The martian origin of ALH 84001 was recognized only in 1994.
ALH 84001 was probably blasted off Mars about 16 million years ago; it could have been longer ago, but not much more recently. The only known natural process that can get rocks off Mars is meteorite impact. If a large enough meteorite or asteroid hit Mars, some rocks nearby on Mars' surface would be blasted up and could leave Mars completely.
After it left Mars, ALH 84001 orbited the Sun on its own, like a small asteroid. But its orbit changed each time it passed close to the planets or collided with an asteroid. By chance, the orbit of ALH 84001 changed enough so that some 13,000 years ago, the Earth and ALH 84001 collided.
It is certain that ALH 84001 is from Mars because it contain traces of gas that is just like the martian atmosphere.
Information Sources
Quest to Planet Mars | A Thinkquest 2004 project by Victoria Junior College, Singapore