Mars Through the Millennia

Abstract

For the Egyptians it was “the red one,” for the Sumerians, the star of death Nergal. It was Ares to the Greeks and Mars to the Romans. For most, it represented the god of war. It must have been the red color of the planet, evoking blood or the eyes of a furious animal, that suggested a violent personality for Mars. In the Middle Ages, being born with Mars in one’s zodiac sign could make you violent and vicious. But it was thanks to Mars that Kepler came to understand the laws of planetary motion, paving the way for the theory of universal gravitation of Newton.On the following pages, we will consider the myths about Mars built by ancient cultures, but also their valuable observations; the first attempts to observe the surface of the planet with telescopes; how some remarkable discoveries were made, while other features induced early observers to ruminate about huge engineering feats built by aliens. We will see how our understanding of the Red Planet changed with the observations made in space, and familiarize ourselves with some of the characteristics of the planet.