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Mars has long captured astronomers’ (and the public’s) imagination—the fourth planet from the sun may have once harbored life, may be the first stop in humanity’s expansion from Earth, and has been reached by a number of rovers and probes. With interest in human colonization of the red planet rapidly growing, learn the basics with this fascinating visualization and fact sheet from NASA.
Launched in 2020, NASA's Perseverance rover landed in Mars' Jezero crater, equipped with a deployable helicopter with the mission of searching for evidence of ancient life. Designed as the successor to the Curiosity rover—and nicknamed “Percy”—the vehicle has covered more than 10 miles, collected dozens of samples, and taken hundreds of images. Explore its path and see a 3D model of the rover here.
Library of Congress
As telescope technology progressed in the 19th-century, astronomers became able to make detailed observations of the surface of objects in our solar system. The dips, valleys, lines crisscrossing Mars in particular captured onlookers imagination, leading some to speculate the seemingly organized features could only have been made by an intelligent civilization, with some school textbooks even speculating what Earth looked like to the Martian population
Amazon MGM Studios
NASA's Mars robotic rover Opportunity was launched in 2003 to study the planet's surface, craters, and more. Staying alive for a whopping 57 times longer than the planned mission, “Oppy” traveled across Mars, gathering unprecedented insights into the Red Planet and earning a place in the hearts of the scientists and engineers overseeing the mission. Watch the trailer of the award-winning documentary here.
The Planetary Society
Spacecraft have been taking pictures of Mars from space since 1965, when the pioneering probe Mariner 4 became the first to beam back an image to Earth of a planet other than our own. The technology since then has significantly evolved, and the views of the fourth planet from the sun have inspired the public’s imagination. See a collection of Mars taken by various spacecraft over the past few decades.
PBS Space Time
While the idea of humans living on Mars has long been the realm of futurists and science fiction, the concept is rapidly becoming a realistic effort. But what happens once we reach the surface? The planet is cold, dry, and the virtually nonexistent atmosphere means solar radiation is constantly raining on the surface. There is one possibility—terraforming, or gradually transforming the atmosphere until it resembles Earth.
Search and uncover even more interesting information in our vast database of curated Mars resources