Water on Mars
Water and Life on Mars
Mars perhaps first caught public interest in the late 1870s, when Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported using a telescope to observe canali, or channels, on Mars. By the turn of the century, popular songs told of sending messages between Earth and Mars by means of huge signal mirrors. On a darker side, H.G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds portrayed an invasion of Earth by technologically superior Martians desperate for water. (1) In the early 1900s novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is best known his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan, also entertained young readers with tales of adventures among the exotic inhabitants of Mars, which he called Barsoo. (2)
It was hoped that Mars had ample liquid water and perhaps even irrigation channels of liquid water. Of all the planets in our solar system other than Earth, Mars is the most likely to have harbored liquid water and perhaps even life. Mars' rotational period and seasonal cycles are similar to those of Earth, although they are twice as long due to its greater rotational period around the sun. (see table 1) (3)
Fact began to turn against such imaginings when the first robotic spacecraft was sent to Mars in 1965. Pictures from the first flyby and orbiter missions showed a desolate world, (see figure 1) blemished with craters like Earth's Moon. The first wave of Mars exploration ended after the Viking mission. This mission sent two orbiters and two landers to the Red Planet in 1975. The landers conducted experiments including chemical tests in search of life. Most scientists interpreted the results of these tests as negative, diminishing hopes of a world where life is widespread. (3)
Several new developments in studies occurred over the next few decades and changed the way that scientists thought about life and Mars. One of these developments was the 1996 announcement by a team from Stanford University, NASA's Johnson Space Center and Quebec's McGill
Mars perhaps first caught public interest in the late 1870s, when Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported using a telescope to observe canali, or channels, on Mars. By the turn of the century, popular songs told of sending messages between Earth and Mars by means of huge signal mirrors. On a darker side, H.G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds portrayed an invasion of Earth by technologically superior Martians desperate for water. (1) In the early 1900s novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is best known his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan, also entertained young readers with tales of adventures among the exotic inhabitants of Mars, which he called Barsoo. (2)
It was hoped that Mars had ample liquid water and perhaps even irrigation channels of liquid water. Of all the planets in our solar system other than Earth, Mars is the most likely to have harbored liquid water and perhaps even life. Mars' rotational period and seasonal cycles are similar to those of Earth, although they are twice as long due to its greater rotational period around the sun. (see table 1) (3)
Fact began to turn against such imaginings when the first robotic spacecraft was sent to Mars in 1965. Pictures from the first flyby and orbiter missions showed a desolate world, (see figure 1) blemished with craters like Earth's Moon. The first wave of Mars exploration ended after the Viking mission. This mission sent two orbiters and two landers to the Red Planet in 1975. The landers conducted experiments including chemical tests in search of life. Most scientists interpreted the results of these tests as negative, diminishing hopes of a world where life is widespread. (3)
Several new developments in studies occurred over the next few decades and changed the way that scientists thought about life and Mars. One of these developments was the 1996 announcement by a team from Stanford University, NASA's Johnson Space Center and Quebec's McGill
Citations: 1 – "H.G. Wells." Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. 2002. 2 – "Edgar Rice Burroughs." Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia 3 – "Mars." Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. 2002. 6 – NASA. "Mineral in Mars ‘Berries" Adds to Water Story." Press release. March 18, 2004. 8 – NASA. "Mars Rovers Spot Water-Clue Mineral, Frost, Clouds." Press release. Dec. 13, 2004. 9 – "Mars Water History Re-written." In the News 10 – "Olivine May Hold Clues About Water on Mars." October 19, 2006. http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1212666.php/Olivine_may_hold_clues_about_water_on_Mars 11 - "The Story of Water on Mars." CNN