Who Discovered Mars?
Mars is one of the planets with which students are most familiar. History has been filled with accounts of Mars, science fiction stories have still not recovered from the imagery of little green Martians and, as scientists search for a habitable future home, Mars is often on the short list of candidates. Named after the Roman god of war due to its visibility in the night sky and its blood red color, Mars was first discovered many thousands of years ago. Who discovered Mars is a mystery that may never be solved, but the history of our discovery and research of Mars is nevertheless an interesting story.
The planet Mars has been observed and discussed among cultures and civilizations for millennia. Some of the first people in history who wrote accounts of the planet Mars were the ancient Babylonians, who named the planet after their god of fire, perhaps because of its bright red hue. It was mentioned by the Greeks, including some of the famous philosophers. The Hindus, ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Vietnamese, and countless others named the planet, and it appears prominently in many of their writings.
As the world approached modernity, the great philosopher Aristotle began discussing Mars in detail in some of his journals. Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer, first mapped out the course of Mars in the late 1500s. Nicolaus Copernicus viewed Mars from his telescope in the early 1600s, an event that kick-started modern concepts of the red planet. While none of these individuals can be said to have truly discovered Mars, each discovery helped humans to understand the planet more completely.
Different Conception of the Planet
In 1877, 300 years after Brahe’s important observations of Mars, Giovanni Schiaparelli noticed something strange. As he used an extremely powerful telescope he noticed a series of strange lines on the surface of the planet which he deemed canali, or canals. He supposed that these lines were waterways or highways built by the alien people of Mars, and the conception of the planet was changed forever. Perhaps there was intelligent life in space!
Science grew more advanced, and it became clear that the lines he saw were merely an optical illusion. French Scientist Camille Flammarion did not observe these striations in the landscape, but the idea of Martians remained. H.G. Wells’ famous novel, The War of the Worlds, detailed an attack on the human race by Martians, and the conception of the planet continues to be shaped by these early ideas of what the planet might be like.
As late as the 20th century, fear of Martians existed, confirmed by a radio show narrated by Orson Welles which sent Americans into a panic. The radio show made it seem as though Martians were invading the earth. As many as a quarter of the listeners thought it was a real news broadcast.
Modern Ideas of Life on Mars
The idea of life on Mars pervaded for decades, and most individuals—even scientists—believed that life on Mars was a distinct possibility. It wasn’t until the 1960s when a series of observations by the Mariner spacecraft confirmed that Mars was basically a lifeless planet.
For the first time, Mars was “discovered” as being what it truly is, a barren and rocky wasteland without intelligent beings. The Mariner, and later Viking, missions took photographs of the planet that remain entrenched in the public consciousness.
Some of the most beautiful discoveries on Mars came in the 2000s when detailed photos and topographical maps of Mars became available for the general public due to the decades of exploration. Active avalanches and volcanoes have been captured in images, and hints of life were discovered in the form of chemicals such as methane and formaldehyde.
Mars continues to be researched today, and new discoveries are made yearly which challenge the notion that we truly know all there is to know about the red planet.