We have just celebrated first anniversary of landing of Curiosity in Mars. It’s believed that Mars used to receive heavy rainfall billions of years ago. We hope Curiosity gathers more information about Mars. For ancient Egyptians, Mars is the God of War. But for Indians, he is the friend of miseries and curses. Indian astrologists believe that Mangal/Chovva (mars) can destroy human fortunes and it’s regarded a curse for a person if he /she is Mangala (chovva dosham). True or not, Mars has a lot of mysteries to hide. So, let us take for a little while about this mysterious planet.

The world since 1957: After 1957, studies related to space and celestial bodies have noticed a huge jump. Though first images of Mars were not clear, Wiking vehicles that landed in Mars in the year 1976 gave some beautiful pictures of Mars. Then two decades noticed its development studies in slow pace. Russia’s operations too were not fruitful.   

Lovers of Mars:  Mars has always been astrologers’ and scientists’ favorite. Percival Lowell of America and Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli of Italy are widely regarded as the lovers of Mars. Both believed that there exists a civilized society in Mars who make ponds and canals to do cultivation. But later studies revealed their assumptions to be wrong. In 1953, when the movie ‘War of worlds’ was released, inhabitants of Mars became super stars, though it was a myth.

Mars is visible with naked eyes: As it’s red in colour, it’s easily visible. At certain revolutions, it reaches very close to earth. In an ordinary telecast, its snow cap at polar region is also visible.

New face: 1997 Mars pathfinder, 2002 Mars Odyssey and 2004 Spirit and Opportunity showed us another face of Mars. They gave clear evidence of existence of water in Mars. They also presented much more clear pictures of mars.

Moons of Mars: Mars has two known moons – Deimos and Phobos. If we compare them with earth’s moon, they are too small. They are natural satellites of Mars and as they are too small, they are not capable to reflect light during night time.  

Future of Mars: By November 2013, another space vehicle of NASA, MAVAN will start its mars expeditions. Its aim is to study about the atmosphere of mars. Can MAVAN bring us good news of existence of life in Mars? Let us wait for a while.     

Article Posted By : Sandhya Rani  On October 13, 2013lView All Articles

Let us wait and c

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/the-mysterious-mars-article-2765.htm

Keywords :
planet mars , MAVAN