Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T18:49:04.283Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mars before the Space Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2008

Barrie W. Jones
Barrie W. Jones
Affiliation:
Astronomy Group, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mars has surely been scrutinised since the dawn of humankind. Its appearance every couple of years like a drop of blood in the sky led to warlike attributes in the ancient world. In the 16th century Tycho Brahe made accurate observations of the position of Mars that enabled Johannes Kepler to obtain his first two laws of planetary motion. These in turn were explained by Newton's laws of motion and gravity. In the 17th century the first telescope observations were made, but Mars is small and very little surface detail could be discerned.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries telescopes improved, revealing many dark areas on the red tinted surface. During the close opposition of 1877 sufficient detail could be seen that enabled Giovanni Schiaparelli to announce that he could see about 40 canali on Mars. This led to the saga of the canals of Mars, finally laid to rest in 1971 when Mariner 9 made observations from Martian orbit showing that the canali/canals do not exist.

Belief that there was life on Mars was widespread in the 19th century. However, the majority of astronomers never believed in Martian intelligence. Least controversial was the view that the dark areas were some form of plant life. This view persisted until Mariner 4 flew past Mars in 1965 and discovered a far thinner atmosphere than previously thought. This was a low point, with impact craters dominating the images. It was Mariner 9 that revealed much more promising landscapes, including volcanic features, and others indicating that water had flowed across the surface, particularly when Mars was young. Thus, the contemporary era of Mars exploration began.

Our picture of Mars today is not only much more complete than that before Mariner 4, in several ways it is quite different. The belief, however, that there might be life on Mars persists – subsurface life cannot be ruled out and, failing that, there might be ancient fossils on Mars.

Keywords

astrobiologyextraterrestrial lifehistory of astronomyMars
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 143 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

de Vaucouleurs, G. (1950). The Planet Mars. Faber and Faber, London.Google Scholar
Drake, F. & Sobel, D. (1993). Is Anyone Out There?, pp. 170–172. Souvenir Press, London.Google Scholar
ESA (2007). www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Aurora/SEM9E92DAF_0.html.Google Scholar
Flammarion, C. (1862). La pluralité des mondes habités. Didier, Paris.Google Scholar
Huygens, C. (1875). Sketches and notes in F. Terby, ‘Aréographie, ou étude comparative des observations faites sur l'aspect physique de la planète Mars depuis Fontana (1636) jusqu’à nos jours (1873)', in Mémoirs des savants étrangers de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique, vol. 39, p. 8.Google Scholar
Jackson, F. & Moore, P. (1965). Life on Mars. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Jones, B.W. (2007). Discovering the Solar System. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK.Google Scholar
Lowell, P. (1908). Mars as the Abode of Life. McMillan & Co, London.Google Scholar
Murray, C.D. & Dermott, S.F. (1999). Solar System Dynamics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 4, 22–29.Google Scholar
NASA (2007). mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/future/futureMissions.html.Google Scholar
Pecker, J.-C. (2001). Understanding the Heavens, pp. 94–108. Springer, Heidelberg.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagan, C. & Fox, P. (1975). The canals of Mars: an assessment after Mariner 9. Icarus 25, 602–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagan, C. & Pollack, J.P. (1966). On the nature of the canals of Mars. Nature, 212, 117–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiaparelli, G.V. (1894). The planet Mars. Astron. Astrophys. 13, 635–723.Google Scholar
Schröter, J.H. (1881). Aerographische Beiträge. Leiden, Germany.Google Scholar
Sheehan, W. (1996). The Planet Mars: a History of Observation and Discovery. University of Arizona Press, Arizona.Google Scholar
Slipher, E.C. (1962). Mars. Sky Publishing, Cambridge, MA, USA.Google Scholar
Strughold, H. (1954). The Green and Red Planet. Sidgwick and Jackson, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veverka, J. & Sagan, C. (1974). McLaughlin and Mars. American Scientist 62, 44–53.Google Scholar
Wells, H.G. (1898). The War of the Worlds, ch. 1.Google Scholar