Category Archives: Mars

Key Facts & Summary

Mars has been observed by many different cultures from around the world since hundreds of years. Because of this it is impossible to credit anyone with its discovery, Mars being easily visible with the naked eye.

Observations date back to ancient Egyptian astronomers in the 2nd millennium BCE while Chinese records about the motions of Mars appeared before the founding of the Zhou Dynasty in 1045 BCE.

Detailed observations were made even by the Babylonians who developed arithmetic techniques to predict the future position of the planet while the ancient Greeks developed a geocentric model to explain the planets motions.

To the ancient Romans, the planet Mars was symbolic of blood and war, the equivalent of the Greek god of war Aries. In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model for the Solar System in which the planets follow circular orbits around the Sun.

Johannes Kepler revised this creation, yielding an elliptic orbit for Mars that more accurately fitted the observational data. In 1610, Galileo Galilei first observed Mars with a telescope and within a century, astronomers discovered several features of Mars and determined the planets rotational period and axial tilt.

The idea of life on Mars started a long time ago, and in a way this helped fuel the drive for searching it upon Mars. Since 1877 onward, it was mistakenly thought that water was found on Mars and later the idea of life became popularized among the public.

Percival Lowell believed he could see a network of canals on Mars but they were proved to be optical illusions. Since then, many more details about the planet were gathered both exciting and disappointing, and the presence of todays robots on the planet are a testament of the will of the people who wish to finally find a trace of life on Mars, even if it means finding evidence of past life.

It is hypothesized that the Solar System formed from a giant rotating ball of gas and dust known as the pre-solar nebula. Much of it formed the Sun while more of its dust went on and merged to create the first proto-planets. Mars was one of these planets and after the gravity pulled enough swirling gas and dust, it became the fourth planet from the Sun.

Mars is about 227.9 million km / 141.6 million mi or 1.5 AU away from the Sun. It takes sunlight about 13 minutes to reach Mars. The diameter of Mars is 6.779 km or 4.212 mi, slightly more than half the size of Earth.

In a way, its diameter is about the width of the continent of Africa. Marss mass is 6.42 x 1023kilograms, about 10 times less thanEarth and avolumeof 1.6318 x 10 km (163 billion cubic kilometers) which is the equivalent of 0.151 Earths. Its entire surface area is similar to that of all the Earths continents combined

One rotation/day on Mars is completed within 24.6 hours while a whole trip around the Sun or year, is completed within 669.6 days.

Mars has a relatively pronouncedorbital eccentricityof about 0.09. Of the seven other planets in the Solar System, onlyMercuryhas a larger orbital eccentricity. It is known that in the past, Mars had a much more circular orbit. At one point, 1.35million Earth years ago, Mars had an eccentricity of roughly 0.002, much less than that of Earth today.

It is believed that the closest distance between Earth and Mars will continue to mildly decrease for the next 25.000 years.

Marss axis of rotation is tilted 25.2 degrees similar to Earth which has an axial tilt of 23.4 degrees. It has seasons though they last longer than on Earth since Mars takes longer to orbit the Sun. The seasons vary in length due to Marss elliptical, egg-shaped orbit around the Sun.

It is estimated that Mars has a dense core with a radius between 930-1.300 miles / 1.500 2.100 kilometers. It is made up primarily of iron and nickel with about 16-17% sulfur. The iron sulfide core is thought to be twice as rich in lighter elements then Earths core.

The core is surrounded by a silicate mantle which formed many tectonic plates and volcanic features on the planet that now appear to be dormant.

Besides silicon and oxygen, the most abundant elements in Martian crust are iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium and potassium, an average thickness of the planets crust has been estimated to be about 50 km / 31 mi, with a maximum thickness of 125 km / 78 mi. In comparison, Earths average crust is about 40 km / 25 mi.

It is estimated that Mars lost its magnetosphere around 4 billion years ago. A possible reason for this is because of numerous asteroid strikes and the solar wind interacting directly with the Martian ionosphere, lowering the atmospheric density by stripping away atoms from the outer layer.

The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 96% carbon dioxide, 1.93% argon and 1.89% nitrogen, along with traces of oxygen and water. It is quite dusty. Recently methane has also been detected in the atmosphere, values of which indicate an active source of gas that should be present be it biological or non-biological.

If Mars had an Earth-like orbit, its seasons would be similar to Earth's because itsaxial tiltis similar to Earth's. Spring in the northern hemisphere (autumn in the southern) is the longest season lasting 194 days. Autumn in the northern hemisphere (spring in the southern) is the shortest at 142 days. Northern winter (southern summer) lasts 154 days while northern summer (southern winter) lasts 178 days.

On average, thetemperatureonMarsis about -80 degrees Fahrenheit / -60 degrees Celsius. In winter, near the polestemperaturescan get down to -195 degrees F / -125 degrees C. Mars has the largestdust stormsin the Solar System, reaching speeds of over 160km/h (100mph). These can vary from a storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the entire planet. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, increasing global temperature.

Though it is often referred to as the Red Planet, Mars actually has many colors. At the surface colors such as brown, gold and tan are present. Its surface is the same size as Earths dry lands combined, even though it is two times smaller.

Mars has many evidences of a watery past, with ancient river valley networks, deltas and lakebeds, as well as rocks and minerals on the surface that could only have formed in liquid water. Some features suggest that Mars experienced huge floods about 3.5 billion years ago.

Though liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars due to low atmospheric pressure, which is less than 1% that of Earths, except for short periods, the volume of water ice caps appear to be made largely out of water with a volume of water ice enough to cover, if melted, the entire planetary surface to a depth of 11 meters or 36 ft.

There are landforms visible that strongly suggest that liquid water has existed on the planets surface like hematite concretions (image above), or the Maadim Vallis, a valley of about 700 km / 430 mi thought to have been carved by flowing water long ago.

Near the northern polar cap is the 81.4 km / 50.6 mi wide Korolev Crater, where it was found to be filled with about 2.200 cubic km / 530 mi of water ice.

There are two permanent polar ice caps on Mars. During winter, the poles lay in continuous darkness and causing depositions of 25-30% of the atmosphere into slabs of carbon dioxide dry ice.

When they are exposed again to sunlight the carbon dioxide sublimates and sometimes create water-ice clouds. Both polar caps consist primarily of water ice, about 70%.

The dichotomy of Martian topography is striking, northern plains flattened by lava flows contrast with the southern highlands, pitted and cratered by ancient impacts.

Mars is scarred by a number of impact craters: a total of 43,000 craters with a diameter of 5km (3.1mi) or greater have been found. The largest confirmed of these is theHellas impact basin, a lightalbedo featureclearly visible from Earth.

The volcano Olympus Mons, is an extinct volcano in the vast upland region Tharsis, which contains several other large volcanoes. Olympus Mons is however the greatest, in fact it is the largest volcanoe detected in the entire Solar System, it has about three times the height of Mount Everest.

The large canyon,Valles Marinerisalso known as Agathadaemon in the old canal maps, has a length of 4,000km (2,500mi) and a depth of up to 7km (4.3mi). The length of Valles Marineris is equivalent to the length of Europe and extends across one-fifth the circumference of Mars. By comparison, theGrand Canyon is only 446km (277mi) long and nearly 2km (1.2mi) deep. Valles Marineris was formed due to the swelling of theTharsisarea, which caused the crust in the area of Valles Marineris to collapse.

It is 10 times longer and 10 times wider than the Grand Canyon. Mars also has sand on its surface, made up from basaltic rock, thus having a grey color.

When the wind blows, dunes are created including series of parallel ridges in crater floors, also horseshoe-shaped dunes are created. Mars also has dust devils, towering vortices of wind similar to tornadoes. When the dust devils blow the red dust around on the greyish basaltic plains, they can leave behind complex and beautiful curlicues.

Mars actually has avalanches. Cliffs towering above the surface that hold different materials can be dislodged in the spring when carbon dioxide thaws, creating tremendous cascades of rock and dust.

Mars has only 2 known moons named Phobos and Deimos after the horses that pulled the chariot of the god of war Mars. They are very small though, Phobos has a diameter of about 25 km or 15.5 mi, while Deimos just 15 km or 9.3 mi. They look very much like asteroids and it is strongly believed that they have been captured by Mars gravity from the nearby asteroid belt.

Phobos orbits Mars only 6.000 km or 3.728 mi over the surface, moving so rapidly in its orbit that it orbits faster than Mars rotates. Tides from Mars are also altering its orbit, slowly lowering Phobos closer and closer to the surface. It is believed that in a few million years Phobos will drop low enough that it will actually enter the atmosphere and impact the surface.

On June 7, 2018, NASA announced that theCuriosityrover had discoveredorganic compoundsin sedimentary rocks dating to three billion years old, indicating that some of the building blocks for life were present.

In July 2018, scientists reported the discovery of a sub-glacial lake on Mars, the first known stable body of water on the planet. It sits 1.5km (0.9mi) below the surface at the base of thesouthern polar ice capand is about 20km (12mi) wide. Out of all the planets in the Solar System, Mars appears to have the highest change of having life forms but still the conditions are harsh enough that nothing should be able to survive there, perhaps only beneath the surface.

Still, regardless of its habitability now, Mars was definitely once a planet filled with oceans and the right conditions of life. Most people would be happy if we could only find evidence of life that may have existed on the Red Planet.

Future astrobiology missions are planned, including theMars 2020andRosalind Franklinrovers. They have the mission to take soil samples and return them to Earth for further analysis. If we look into Marss history, it is one of the most actively observed planets in the Solar System and chances are it will remain so for a long time.

There are many plans for Mars, including terraforming and sending people on it, but it remains to be seen, hopes are high and missions continue.

- Mars is the most intensely studied planet with observations dating back to 4.000 years ago.

- It is about 50% farther from the Sun than Earth.

- Perhaps second only to Venus when it comes to visits, Mars has been visited over 16 times over about 39 attempts with the first successful mission happening in 1965 with the Mariner 4 spacecraft flyby.

- If you weigh 100kg on Earth, on Mars your weight would be 38kg.

- Mars is the outermost terrestrial planet, outside Earths orbit.

- Theoretically, Mars is populated by robots since we sent so many there.

- Mars has captured our imagination so much, that it has spanned countless adaptations on TV, literature and it may as well be the most popular planet after Earth.

- On Mars the Sun appears about half the size as it does on Earth.

- Pieces of Mars have fallen to Earth. Scientists have found tiny traces of Martian atmosphere within meteorites violently ejected from Mars, then orbiting the solar system amongst galactic debris for millions of years, before crash landing on Earth.

- A year on Mars is almost twice as long as a year on Earth.

- It would take more than six Mars to fill the volume of Earth.

- Almost 7 million Mars can fit in the Sun.

- The Mars One project hopes to colonize the Red Planet, beginning in 2022.

[1.] Wikipedia

[2.] NASA

[1.] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/OSIRIS_Mars_true_color.jpg

[2.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism#/media/File:Heliocentric.jpg

[3.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mars,_Earth_size_comparison.jpg

[4.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marsorbitsolarsystem.gif

[5.] https://sites.google.com/site/missiontomarsatvssec/home/mission-background-briefing-students/earth-vs-mars/structure-of-the-earth

[6.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USGS-MarsMap-sim3292-20140714-crop.png

[7.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spirit_Mars_Silica_April_20_2007.jpg

[8.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nasa_mars_opportunity_rock_water_150_eng_02mar04.jpg

[9.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27adim_Vallis

[10.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perspective_view_of_Korolev_crater.jpg

[11.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Martian_north_polar_cap.jpg

[12.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PIA23304-Mars-ImpactCrater-Sep2016-Feb2019.jpg

[13.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Olympus_Mons_alt.jpg

[14.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris#/media/File:Mars_Valles_Marineris.jpeg

[15.] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/05/mars-ice-age/484541/

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Mars Facts | Temperature, Surface, Information, History ...

For the planet named after this Roman god, see Mars.

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars (Latin: Mrs, pronounced[mars]) was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome.[3] He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, which began the season for military campaigning and ended the season for farming.

Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares,[4] whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. But the character and dignity of Mars differed in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature.[5] Mars's altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome. Although the center of Mars's worship was originally located outside the sacred boundary of Rome (pomerium), Augustus made the god a renewed focus of Roman religion by establishing the Temple of Mars Ultor in his new forum.[6]

Although Ares was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, and was a father (pater) of the Roman people.[7] In the mythic genealogy and founding myths of Rome, Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus by his rape of Rhea Silvia. His love affair with Venus symbolically reconciled the two different traditions of Rome's founding; Venus was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas, celebrated as the Trojan refugee who "founded" Rome several generations before Romulus laid out the city walls.

The word Mrs (genitive Mrtis),[8] which in Old Latin and poetic usage also appears as Mvors (Mvortis),[9] is cognate with Oscan Mmers (Mmertos).[10] The oldest recorded Latin form, Mamart-, is likely of foreign origin.[11] It has been explained as deriving from Maris, the name of an Etruscan child-god, though this is not universally agreed upon.[12] Scholars have varying views on whether the two gods are related, and if so how.[13] Latin adjectives from the name of Mars are martius and martialis, from which derive English "martial" (as in "martial arts" or "martial law") and personal names such as "Marcus" and "Martin".[14][15]

Mars may ultimately be a thematic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European god Perkwunos, having originally a thunderer character.[16]

Like Ares who was the son of Zeus and Hera,[17] Mars is usually considered to be the son of Jupiter and Juno. However, in a version of his birth given by Ovid, he was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the mother's function when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead (or mind); to restore the balance, Juno sought the advice of the goddess Flora on how to do the same. Flora obtained a magic flower (Latin flos, plural flores, a masculine word) and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. She then plucked a flower ritually using her thumb, touched Juno's belly, and impregnated her. Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth.[18]

Ovid tells this story in the Fasti, his long-form poetic work on the Roman calendar.[18] It may explain why the Matronalia, a festival celebrated by married women in honor of Juno as a goddess of childbirth, occurred on the first day of Mars's month, which is also marked on a calendar from late antiquity as the birthday of Mars. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, and the god would have been born with the new year.[19] Ovid is the only source for the story. He may be presenting a literary myth of his own invention, or an otherwise unknown archaic Italic tradition; either way, in choosing to include the story, he emphasizes that Mars was connected to plant life and was not alienated from female nurture.[20]

The consort of Mars was Nerio or Neriene, "Valor." She represents the vital force (vis), power (potentia) and majesty (maiestas) of Mars.[21] Her name was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus, "manly virtue" (from vir, "man").[22] In the early 3rd century BCE, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars greeting Nerio, his wife.[23] A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Neriene were celebrated together at a festival held on March 23.[24] In the later Roman Empire, Neriene came to be identified with Minerva.[25]

Nerio probably originates as a divine personification of Mars's power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally feminine. Her name appears with that of Mars in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities, each paired with the name of a deity. The influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat these pairs as "marriages."[26]

The union of Venus and Mars held greater appeal for poets and philosophers, and the couple were a frequent subject of art. In Greek myth, the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite had been exposed to ridicule when her husband Hephaestus (whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan) caught them in the act by means of a magical snare. Although not originally part of the Roman tradition, in 217 BCE Venus and Mars were presented as a complementary pair in the lectisternium, a public banquet at which images of twelve major gods of the Roman state were presented on couches as if present and participating.[27]

Scenes of Venus and Mars in Roman art often ignore the adulterous implications of their union, and take pleasure in the good-looking couple attended by Cupid or multiple Loves (amores). Some scenes may imply marriage,[28] and the relationship was romanticized in funerary or domestic art in which husbands and wives had themselves portrayed as the passionate divine couple.[29]

The uniting of deities representing Love and War lent itself to allegory, especially since the lovers were the parents of Concordia.[citation needed] The Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino notes that "only Venus dominates Mars, and he never dominates her".[30] In ancient Roman and Renaissance art, Mars is often shown disarmed and relaxed, or even sleeping, but the extramarital nature of their affair can also suggest that this peace is impermanent.[31]

Virility as a kind of life force (vis) or virtue (virtus) is an essential characteristic of Mars.[32] As an agricultural guardian, he directs his energies toward creating conditions that allow crops to grow, which may include warding off hostile forces of nature.[33]

The priesthood of the Arval Brothers called on Mars to drive off "rust" (lues), with its double meaning of wheat fungus and the red oxides that affect metal, a threat to both iron farm implements and weaponry. In the surviving text of their hymn, the Arval Brothers invoked Mars as ferus, "savage" or "feral" like a wild animal.[34]

Mars's potential for savagery is expressed in his obscure connections to the wild woodlands, and he may even have originated as a god of the wild, beyond the boundaries set by humans, and thus a force to be propitiated.[35] In his book on farming, Cato invokes Mars Silvanus for a ritual to be carried out in silva, in the woods, an uncultivated place that if not held within bounds can threaten to overtake the fields needed for crops.[36] Mars's character as an agricultural god may derive solely from his role as a defender and protector,[37] or may be inseparable from his warrior nature,[38] as the leaping of his armed priests the Salii was meant to quicken the growth of crops.[39]

It appears that Mars was originally a thunderer or storm deity, which explains some of his mixed traits in regards to fertility.[16] This role was later taken in the Roman pantheon by several other gods, such as Summanus or Jupiter.

The wild animals most sacred to Mars were the woodpecker, the wolf, and the bear, which in the natural lore of the Romans were said always to inhabit the same foothills and woodlands.[40]

Plutarch notes that the woodpecker (picus) is sacred to Mars because "it is a courageous and spirited bird and has a beak so strong that it can overturn oaks by pecking them until it has reached the inmost part of the tree."[41] As the beak of the picus Martius contained the god's power to ward off harm, it was carried as a magic charm to prevent bee stings and leech bites.[42] The bird of Mars also guarded a woodland herb (paeonia) used for treatment of the digestive or female reproductive systems; those who sought to harvest it were advised to do so by night, lest the woodpecker jab out their eyes.[43] The picus Martius seems to have been a particular species, but authorities differ on which one: perhaps Picus viridis[44] or Dryocopus martius.[45]

The woodpecker was revered by the Latin peoples, who abstained from eating its flesh.[46] It was one of the most important birds in Roman and Italic augury, the practice of reading the will of the gods through watching the sky for signs.[47] The mythological figure named Picus had powers of augury that he retained when he was transformed into a woodpecker; in one tradition, Picus was the son of Mars.[48] The Umbrian cognate peiqu also means "woodpecker," and the Italic Picenes were supposed to have derived their name from the picus who served as their guide animal during a ritual migration (ver sacrum) undertaken as a rite of Mars.[49] In the territory of the Aequi, another Italic people, Mars had an oracle of great antiquity where the prophecies were supposed to be spoken by a woodpecker perched on a wooden column.[50]

Mars's association with the wolf is familiar from what may be the most famous of Roman myths, the story of how a she-wolf (lupa) suckled his infant sons when they were exposed by order of King Amulius, who feared them because he had usurped the throne from their grandfather, Numitor.[51] The woodpecker also brought nourishment to the twins.[52]

The wolf appears elsewhere in Roman art and literature in masculine form as the animal of Mars. A statue group that stood along the Appian Way showed Mars in the company of wolves.[53] At the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BCE, the appearance of the wolf of Mars (Martius lupus) was a sign that Roman victory was to come.[54]

In Roman Gaul, the goose was associated with the Celtic forms of Mars, and archaeologists have found geese buried alongside warriors in graves. The goose was considered a bellicose animal because it is easily provoked to aggression.[55]

Ancient Greek and Roman religion distinguished between animals that were sacred to a deity and those that were prescribed as the correct sacrificial offerings for the god. Wild animals might be viewed as already belonging to the god to whom they were sacred, or at least not owned by human beings and therefore not theirs to give. Since sacrificial meat was eaten at a banquet after the gods received their portion mainly the entrails (exta) it follows that the animals sacrificed were most often, though not always, domestic animals normally part of the Roman diet.[56] Gods often received castrated male animals as sacrifices, and the goddesses female victims; Mars, however, regularly received intact males.[57] Mars did receive oxen under a few of his cult titles, such as Mars Grabovius, but the usual offering was the bull, singly, in multiples, or in combination with other animals.[citation needed]

The two most distinctive animal sacrifices made to Mars were the suovetaurilia, a triple offering of a pig (sus), ram (ovis) and bull (taurus),[58] and the October Horse, the only horse sacrifice known to have been carried out in ancient Rome and a rare instance of a victim the Romans considered inedible.[59]

The earliest center in Rome for cultivating Mars as a deity was the Altar of Mars (Ara Martis) in the Campus Martius ("Field of Mars") outside the sacred boundary of Rome (pomerium). The Romans thought that this altar had been established by the semi-legendary Numa Pompilius, the peace-loving successor of Romulus.[60] According to Roman tradition, the Campus Martius had been consecrated to Mars by their ancestors to serve as horse pasturage and an equestrian training ground for youths.[61] During the Roman Republic (50927 BCE), the Campus was a largely open expanse. No temple was built at the altar, but from 193 BCE a covered walkway connected it to the Porta Fontinalis, near the office and archives of the Roman censors. Newly elected censors placed their curule chairs by the altar, and when they had finished conducting the census, the citizens were collectively purified with a suovetaurilia there.[62] A frieze from the so-called "Altar" of Domitius Ahenobarbus is thought to depict the census, and may show Mars himself standing by the altar as the procession of victims advances.[63]

The main Temple of Mars (Aedes Martis) in the Republican period also lay outside the sacred boundary[where?] and was devoted to the god's warrior aspect.[64] It was built to fulfill a vow (votum) made by a Titus Quinctius in 388 BCE during the Gallic siege of Rome.[65] The founding day (dies natalis) was commemorated on June 1,[66] and the temple is attested by several inscriptions and literary sources.[67] The sculpture group of Mars and the wolves was displayed there.[68] Soldiers sometimes assembled at the temple before heading off to war, and it was the point of departure for a major parade of Roman cavalry held annually on July 15.[69]

A temple to Mars in the Circus Flaminius was built around 133 BCE, funded by Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus from war booty. It housed a colossal statue of Mars and a nude Venus.[70]

The Campus Martius continued to provide venues for equestrian events such as chariot racing during the Imperial period, but under the first emperor Augustus it underwent a major program of urban renewal, marked by monumental architecture. The Altar of Augustan Peace (Ara Pacis Augustae) was located there, as was the Obelisk of Montecitorio, imported from Egypt to form the pointer (gnomon) of the Solarium Augusti, a giant sundial. With its public gardens, the Campus became one of the most attractive places in the city to visit.[71]

Augustus made the centrepiece of his new forum a large Temple to Mars Ultor, a manifestation of Mars he cultivated as the avenger (ultor) of the murder of Julius Caesar and of the military disaster suffered at the Battle of Carrhae. When the legionary standards lost to the Parthians were recovered, they were housed in the new temple. The date of the temple's dedication on May 12 was aligned with the heliacal setting of the constellation Scorpio, the sign of war.[72] The date continued to be marked with circus games as late as the mid-4th century AD.[73]

A large statue of Mars was part of the short-lived Arch of Nero, which was built in 62 CE but dismantled after Nero's suicide and disgrace (damnatio memoriae).[74]

In Roman art, Mars is depicted as either bearded and mature, or young and clean-shaven. Even nude or seminude, he often wears a helmet or carries a spear as emblems of his warrior nature. Mars was among the deities to appear on the earliest Roman coinage in the late 4th and early 3rd century BCE.[76]

On the Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis), built in the last years of the 1st century BCE, Mars is a mature man with a "handsome, classicizing" face, and a short curly beard and moustache. His helmet is a plumed neo-Attic-type. He wears a military cloak (paludamentum) and a cuirass ornamented with a gorgoneion. Although the relief is somewhat damaged at this spot, he appears to hold a spear garlanded in laurel, symbolizing a peace that is won by military victory. The 1st-century statue of Mars found in the Forum of Nerva (pictured at top) is similar. In this guise, Mars is presented as the dignified ancestor of the Roman people. The panel of the Ara Pacis on which he appears would have faced the Campus Martius, reminding viewers that Mars was the god whose altar Numa established there, that is, the god of Rome's oldest civic and military institutions.[77]

Particularly in works of art influenced by the Greek tradition, Mars may be portrayed in a manner that resembles Ares, youthful, beardless, and often nude.[78] In the Renaissance, Mars's nudity was thought to represent his lack of fear in facing danger.[79]

The spear is the instrument of Mars in the same way that Jupiter wields the lightning bolt, Neptune the trident, and Saturn the scythe or sickle.[80] A relic or fetish called the spear of Mars[81] was kept in a sacrarium at the Regia, the former residence of the Kings of Rome.[82] The spear was said to move, tremble or vibrate at impending war or other danger to the state, as was reported to occur before the assassination of Julius Caesar.[83] When Mars is pictured as a peace-bringer, his spear is wreathed with laurel or other vegetation, as on the Ara Pacis or a coin of Aemilianus.[84]

The high priest of Mars in Roman public religion was the Flamen Martialis, who was one of the three major priests in the fifteen-member college of flamens. Mars was also served by the Salii, a twelve-member priesthood of patrician youths who dressed as archaic warriors and danced in procession around the city in March. Both priesthoods extend to the earliest periods of Roman history, and patrician birth was required.[85]

The festivals of Mars cluster in his namesake month of March (Latin: Martius), with a few observances in October, the beginning and end of the season for military campaigning and agriculture. Festivals with horse racing took place in the Campus Martius. Some festivals in March retained characteristics of new year festivals, since Martius was originally the first month of the Roman calendar.[citation needed]

Mars was also honored by chariot races at the Robigalia and Consualia, though these festivals are not primarily dedicated to him. From 217 BCE onward, Mars was among the gods honored at the lectisternium, a banquet given for deities who were present as images.[citation needed]

Roman hymns (carmina) are rarely preserved, but Mars is invoked in two. The Arval Brothers, or "Brothers of the Fields," chanted a hymn to Mars while performing their three-step dance.[87] The Carmen Saliare was sung by Mars's priests the Salii while they moved twelve sacred shields (ancilia) throughout the city in a procession.[88] In the 1st century AD, Quintilian remarks that the language of the Salian hymn was so archaic that it was no longer fully understood.[89]

Mars gave his name to the third month in the Roman calendar, Martius, from which English "March" derives. In the most ancient Roman calendar, Martius was the first month. The planet Mars was named for him, and in some allegorical and philosophical writings, the planet and the god are endowed with shared characteristics.[91] In many languages, Tuesday is named for the planet Mars or the god of war: In Latin, martis dies ("Mars's Day"), survived in Romance languages as marte (Portuguese), martes (Spanish), mardi (French), martedi (Italian), mari (Romanian), and dimarts (Catalan). In Irish (Gaelic), the day is An Mhirt, while in Albanian it is e Marta. The English word Tuesday derives from Old English "Tiwesdg" and means "Tiw's Day", Tiw being the Old English form of the Proto-Germanic war god *Twaz, or Tr in Norse.[92]

In Classical Roman religion, Mars was invoked under several titles, and the first Roman emperor Augustus thoroughly integrated Mars into Imperial cult. The 4th-century Latin historian Ammianus Marcellinus treats Mars as one of several classical Roman deities who remained "cultic realities" up to his own time.[93] Mars, and specifically Mars Ultor, was among the gods who received sacrifices from Julian, the only emperor to reject Christianity after the conversion of Constantine I. In 363 AD, in preparation for the Siege of Ctesiphon, Julian sacrificed ten "very fine" bulls to Mars Ultor. The tenth bull violated ritual protocol by attempting to break free, and when killed and examined, produced ill omens, among the many that were read at the end of Julian's reign. As represented by Ammianus, Julian swore never to make sacrifice to Mars againa vow kept with his death a month later.[94]

Gradivus was one of the gods by whom a general or soldiers might swear an oath to be valorous in battle.[95] His temple outside the Porta Capena was where armies gathered. The archaic priesthood of Mars Gradivus was the Salii, the "leaping priests" who danced ritually in armor as a prelude to war.[96] His cult title is most often taken to mean "the Strider" or "the Marching God," from gradus, "step, march."[97]

The poet Statius addresses him as "the most implacable of the gods,"[98] but Valerius Maximus concludes his history by invoking Mars Gradivus as "author and support of the name 'Roman'":[99] Gradivus is asked along with Capitoline Jupiter and Vesta, as the keeper of Rome's perpetual flame to "guard, preserve, and protect" the state of Rome, the peace, and the princeps (the emperor Tiberius at the time).[100]

A source from Late Antiquity says that the wife of Gradivus was Nereia, the daughter of Nereus, and that he loved her passionately.[101]

Mars Quirinus was the protector of the Quirites ("citizens" or "civilians") as divided into curiae (citizen assemblies), whose oaths were required to make a treaty.[102] As a guarantor of treaties, Mars Quirinus is thus a god of peace: "When he rampages, Mars is called Gradivus, but when he's at peace Quirinus."[103]

The deified Romulus was identified with Mars Quirinus. In the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, however, Mars and Quirinus were two separate deities, though not perhaps in origin. Each of the three had his own flamen (specialized priest), but the functions of the Flamen Martialis and Flamen Quirinalis are hard to distinguish.[104]

Mars is invoked as Grabovius in the Iguvine Tablets, bronze tablets written in Umbrian that record ritual protocols for carrying out public ceremonies on behalf of the city and community of Iguvium. The same title is given to Jupiter and to the Umbrian deity Vofionus. This triad has been compared to the Archaic Triad, with Vofionus equivalent to Quirinus.[105] Tables I and VI describe a complex ritual that took place at the three gates of the city. After the auspices were taken, two groups of three victims were sacrificed at each gate. Mars Grabovius received three oxen.[106]

"Father Mars" or "Mars the Father" is the form in which the god is invoked in the agricultural prayer of Cato,[107] and he appears with this title in several other literary texts and inscriptions.[108] Mars Pater is among the several gods invoked in the ritual of devotio, by means of which a general sacrificed himself and the lives of the enemy to secure a Roman victory.[109]

Father Mars is the regular recipient of the suovetaurilia, the sacrifice of a pig (sus), ram (ovis) and bull (taurus), or often a bull alone.[110] To Mars Pater other epithets were sometimes appended, such as Mars Pater Victor ("Father Mars the Victorious"),[111] to whom the Roman army sacrificed a bull on March 1.[112]

Although pater and mater were fairly common as honorifics for a deity,[113] any special claim for Mars as father of the Roman people lies in the mythic genealogy that makes him the divine father of Romulus and Remus.[114]

In the section of his farming book that offers recipes and medical preparations, Cato describes a votum to promote the health of cattle:

Make an offering to Mars Silvanus in the forest (in silva) during the daytime for each head of cattle: 3 pounds of meal, 4 pounds of bacon, 4 pounds of meat, and 3 pints of wine. You may place the viands in one vessel, and the wine likewise in one vessel. Either a slave or a free man may make this offering. After the ceremony is over, consume the offering on the spot at once. A woman may not take part in this offering or see how it is performed. You may vow the vow every year if you wish.[115]

That Mars Silvanus is a single entity has been doubted. Invocations of deities are often list-like, without connecting words, and the phrase should perhaps be understood as "Mars and Silvanus".[116] Women were explicitly excluded from some cult practices of Silvanus, but not necessarily of Mars.[117] William Warde Fowler, however, thought that the wild god of the wood Silvanus may have been "an emanation or offshoot" of Mars.[118]

Augustus created the cult of "Mars the Avenger" to mark two occasions: his defeat of the assassins of Caesar at Philippi in 42 BCE, and the negotiated return of the Roman battle standards that had been lost to the Parthians at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.[120] The god is depicted wearing a cuirass and helmet and standing in a "martial pose," leaning on a lance he holds in his right hand. He holds a shield in his left hand.[121] The goddess Ultio, a divine personification of vengeance, had an altar and golden statue in his temple.[122]

The Temple of Mars Ultor, dedicated in 2 BCE in the center of the Forum of Augustus, gave the god a new place of honor.[120][123] Some rituals previously conducted within the cult of Capitoline Jupiter were transferred to the new temple,[124] which became the point of departure for magistrates as they left for military campaigns abroad.[125] Augustus required the Senate to meet at the temple when deliberating questions of war and peace.[126] The temple also became the site at which sacrifice was made to conclude the rite of passage of young men assuming the toga virilis ("man's toga") around age 14.[127]

On various Imperial holidays, Mars Ultor was the first god to receive a sacrifice, followed by the Genius of the emperor.[128] An inscription from the 2nd century records a vow to offer Mars Ultor a bull with gilded horns.[129]

Augustus or Augusta was appended far and wide, "on monuments great and small,"[130] to the name of gods or goddesses, including Mars. The honorific marks the affiliation of a deity with Imperial cult.[131] In Hispania, many of the statues and dedications to Mars Augustus were presented by members of the priesthood or sodality called the Sodales Augustales.[132] These vows (vota) were usually fulfilled within a sanctuary of Imperial cult, or in a temple or precinct (templum) consecrated specifically to Mars.[133] As with other deities invoked as Augustus, altars to Mars Augustus might be set up to further the well-being (salus) of the emperor,[134] but some inscriptions suggest personal devotion. An inscription in the Alps records the gratitude of a slave who dedicated a statue to Mars Augustus as conservator corporis sui, the preserver of his own body, said to have been vowed ex iussu numinis ipsius, "by the order of the numen himself".[135]

Mars Augustus appears in inscriptions at sites throughout the Empire, such as Hispania Baetica, Saguntum,[136] and Emerita (Lusitania) in Roman Spain;[137] Leptis Magna (with a date of 67 AD) in present-day Libya;[138] and Sarmizegetusa in the province of Dacia.[139]

In addition to his cult titles at Rome, Mars appears in a large number of inscriptions in the provinces of the Roman Empire, and more rarely in literary texts, identified with a local deity by means of an epithet. Mars appears with great frequency in Gaul among the Continental Celts, as well as in Roman Spain and Britain. In Celtic settings, he is often invoked as a healer.[140] The inscriptions indicate that Mars's ability to dispel the enemy on the battlefield was transferred to the sick person's struggle against illness; healing is expressed in terms of warding off and rescue.[141]

Mars is identified with a number of Celtic deities, some of whom are not attested independently.

"Mars Balearicus" is a name used in modern scholarship for small bronze warrior figures from Majorca (one of the Balearic Islands) that are interpreted as representing the local Mars cult.[190] These statuettes have been found within talayotic sanctuaries with extensive evidence of burnt offerings. "Mars" is fashioned as a lean, athletic nude lifting a lance and wearing a helmet, often conical; the genitals are perhaps semi-erect in some examples.

Other bronzes at the sites represent the heads or horns of bulls, but the bones in the ash layers indicate that sheep, goats, and pigs were the sacrificial victims. Bronze horse-hooves were found in one sanctuary. Another site held an imported statue of Imhotep, the legendary Egyptian physician. These sacred precincts were still in active use when the Roman occupation began in 123 BCE. They seem to have been astronomically oriented toward the rising or setting of the constellation Centaurus.[191]

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Mars (mythology) - Wikipedia

For the first few months of 2021, the Martian atmosphere was buzzing with new visitors from Earth. First, it was the UAE Space Agencys Hope probe, followed by the Chinese Tianwen-1 entering orbit.

More recently Nasa landed the biggest-ever rover on Mars and its companion, an ingenious helicopter, both of which have been setting new milestones since.

The next visitor to the planet will be Tianwen-1 missions lander, which will attempt to reach the surface of the Mars in mid-May. To enter the Martian atmosphere, it will use a slightly different technique to previous missions.

Landing on Mars is notoriously dangerous more missions have failed than succeeded. A successful Mars landing requires entering the atmosphere at very high speeds, then slowing the spacecraft down just the right way as it approaches its landing location.

This phase of the mission, known as entry-descent-landing, is the most critical. Previous missions have used several different ways of Martian atmospheric entry.

Perfecting entry to Marss atmosphere has been helped by the experience of returning spacecraft to Earth. Earth may have a significantly different atmosphere to Mars, but the principles remain the same.

Read more: Mars missions from China and UAE are set to go into orbit here's what they could discover

A spacecraft orbiting a planet will be moving very fast, to keep itself bound to that orbit. But if the spacecraft entered an atmosphere at such high speed, even one as thin as Marss, it would burn up. Anything entering the atmosphere needs to be slowed down significantly and to get rid of the heat generated during this brief journey. There are several ways to go about it.

Spacecraft are protected from the heat generated during atmospheric entry using heat shields. Various missions in the past have used techniques such as absorbing heat, an insulating coating, reflecting the heat back into atmosphere or by ablation burning up the shield material.

From Apollo missions of 1960s to the more recent SpaceXs Dragon, these techniques have been used successfully, and they work really well for Earth. But when it comes to Mars, engineers need to employ some additional measures.

Orbiters are designed to monitor a planets surface from the orbit and act as a communications relay station. When approaching a planet, the spacecraft is usually directed along successively smaller elliptical orbits, slowing down each time, until it reaches its target orbit. This technique can also be used to lower the orbit of a spacecraft ahead of a landers atmospheric entry.

The entire manoeuvre occurs over a few months and doesnt need any additional equipment an efficient way to conserve fuel. Since it uses the planets upper atmosphere to apply brakes, its called as aerobraking. Aerobraking has been used for various Mars missions including ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Aerobraking can significantly slow down the spacecraft, but for missions with rovers to land it gets more complicated. On Mars, the atmospheric density is just 1% of Earth and there are no oceans for the spacecraft to safely splash into. The blunt shape of the spacecraft alone is not enough to reduce the speed.

Previously, successful missions have used extra measures. Mars Pathfinder spacecraft used parachutes to decelerate, while relying on a unique airbag system that sprung into action in the final few seconds to absorb the landing shock. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed successfully on Mars with the same technique.

A few years later, Curiosity rover used a new landing system. In the final few seconds, rockets were fired, allowing the spacecraft to hover while a tether a skycrane lowered the rover to the dusty Martian surface. This new system demonstrated delivery of a heavy payload to Mars and paved the way for bigger missions.

More recently, the Perseverance rover which landed in early 2021, used the the reliable skycrane as well as two more advanced technologies. These new features which used live images taken from its cameras enabled a more accurate, reliable and safer landing.

The Chinese Tianwen-1 rover landing is the next Mars mission. The ambitious mission has orbiting, landing and roving components the first mission to include all three on its first attempt. It has already been circling the red planet since it entered Marss orbit on February 24 and will attempt to land its rover Zhurong which means fire god in mid May.

In size, Zhurong falls between Spirit and the Perseverence and it is carrying six pieces of scientific equipment. After landing, Zhurong will survey the surroundings to study Martian soil, geomorphology and atmosphere, and will look for signs of subsurface water ice.

Traditionally, the Chinese authorities dont reveal a lot of information before the event. However, based on an early overview of the mission by some Chinese researchers, we know the landing sequence the spacecraft will attempt to follow.

On May 17, Zhurong protected by an aeroshell (a protective shell surrounding the spacecraft which includes the heat shield) will enter the atmosphere at a speed of 4 km/s. When it slows down enough, parachutes will be deployed. In the last phase of the sequence, rockets with variable thrust engines will be used for further deceleration.

In contrast with its American counterpart, Tianwen-1 will employ two reliable technologies a laser range finder to work out where it is relative to Martian terrain and a microwave sensor to determine its speed more accurately. These will be used for navigational correction during its parachuted descent phase. During the powered descent phase at the end, optical and Lidar imaging will assist in hazard detection.

Just before touchdown, an automated obstacle avoidance sequence will begin for soft landing. If the mission is successful, China will be the first country to land a rover on Mars in its first attempt. A few days after that, Zhurong will be ready to explore the surface.

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The Chinese Mars lander: how Zhurong will attempt to touch down on the red planet - The Conversation UK

The crafts April 25 flight was conducted at speeds and distances beyond what had ever been previously demonstrated, even in testing on Earth.

NASAs Ingenuity Mars Helicopter continues to set records, flying faster and farther on Sunday, April 25, 2021 than in any tests it went through on Earth. The helicopter took off at 4:31 a.m. EDT (1:31 a.m. PDT), or 12:33 p.m. local Mars time, rising 16 feet (5 meters) the same altitude as its second flight. Then it zipped downrange 164 feet (50 meters), just over half the length of a football field, reaching a top speed of 6.6 feet per second (2 meters per second).

After data came back from Mars starting at 10:16 a.m. EDT (7:16 a.m. PDT), Ingenuitys team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California was ecstatic to see the helicopter soaring out of view. Theyre already digging through a trove of information gathered during this third flight that will inform not just additional Ingenuity flights but possible Mars rotorcraft in the future.

Todays flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing, said Dave Lavery, the projects program executive for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA Headquarters in Washington. With this flight, we are demonstrating critical capabilities that will enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future Mars missions.

The Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASAs Perseverance Mars rover, which is parked at Van Zyl Overlook and serving as a communications base station, captured video of Ingenuity. In the days ahead, segments of that video will be sent back to Earth showing most of the helicopters 80-second journey across its flight zone.

The Ingenuity team has been pushing the helicopters limits by adding instructions to capture more photos of its own including from the color camera, which captured its first images on Flight Two. As with everything else about these flights, the additional steps are meant to provide insights that could be used by future aerial missions.

This is the first time weve seen the algorithm for the camera running over a long distance, said MiMi Aung, the helicopters project manager at JPL. You cant do this inside a test chamber.

Vacuum chambers at JPL are filled with wispy air, primarily carbon dioxide, to simulate the thin Martian atmosphere; they dont have room for even a tiny helicopter to move more than about 1.6 feet (half a meter) in any direction. That posed a challenge: Would the camera track the ground as designed while moving at higher speed on the Red Planet?

Lots of things have to go just right for the camera to do that, said Gerik Kubiak, a JPL software engineer. Aside from focusing on the algorithm that tracks surface features, the team needs the correct image exposures: Dust can obscure the images and interfere with camera performance. And the software must perform consistently.

When youre in the test chamber, you have an emergency land button right there and all these safety features, Kubiak said. We have done all we can to prepare Ingenuity to fly free without these features.

With this third flight in the history books, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team is looking ahead to planning its fourth flight in a few days time.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASAs Science Mission Directorate, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASAs Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuitys development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, Snapdragon, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. The Mars Helicopter Delivery System was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Space Systems, Denver.

News Media Contacts

Andrew GoodJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-393-2433andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana JohnsonNASA Headquarters, Washington301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

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NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Flies Faster, Farther on Third Flight NASA's Mars Exploration Program - NASA Mars Exploration

For the first few months of 2021, the Martian atmosphere was buzzing with new visitors from Earth. First, it was the UAE Space Agencys Hope probe, followed by the Chinese Tianwen-1 entering orbit.

More recently, Nasa landed the biggest-ever rover on Mars, as well as its companion, an ingenious helicopter.Both have been setting new milestones since.

The next visitor to the planet will be Tianwen-1 missions lander, which will attempt to reach the surface of Mars in mid-May. To enter the Martian atmosphere, it will use a slightly different technique to previous missions.

Landing on Mars is notoriously dangerous more missions have failed than succeeded. A successful Mars landing requires entering the atmosphere at very high speeds, then slowing the spacecraft down just the right way as it approaches its landing location.

This phase of the mission, known as entry-descent-landing, is the most critical. Previous missions have used several different ways of Martian atmospheric entry.

Perfecting entry to Marss atmosphere has been helped by the experience of returning spacecraft to Earth. Earth may have a significantly different atmosphere to Mars, but the principles remain the same.

A spacecraft orbiting a planet will be moving very fast, to keep itself bound to that orbit. But if the spacecraft entered an atmosphere at such high speed, even one as thin as Marss, it would burn up. Anything entering the atmosphere needs to be slowed down significantly and to get rid of the heat generated during this brief journey. There are several ways to go about it.

Spacecraft are protected from the heat generated during atmospheric entry using heat shields. Various missions in the past have used techniques such as absorbing heat, an insulating coating, reflecting the heat back into the atmosphere, or by ablation burning up the shield material.

From Apollo missions of the 1960s to the more recent SpaceXs Dragon, these techniques have been used successfully, and they work really well for Earth. But when it comes to Mars, engineers need to employ some additional measures.

Orbiters are designed to monitor a planets surface from orbit and act as a communications relay station. When approaching a planet, the spacecraft is usually directed along successively smaller elliptical orbits, slowing down each time, until it reaches its target orbit. This technique can also be used to lower the orbit of a spacecraft ahead of a landers atmospheric entry.

The entire maneuver occurs over a few months and doesnt need any additional equipment an efficient way to conserve fuel. Since it uses the planets upper atmosphere to apply brakes, its called aerobraking. Aerobraking has been used for various Mars missions including ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Aerobraking can significantly slow down the spacecraft, but for missions with rovers to land, it gets more complicated. On Mars, the atmospheric density is just 1% of Earth and there are no oceans for the spacecraft to safely splash into. The blunt shape of the spacecraft alone is not enough to reduce the speed.

Previously, successful missions have used extra measures. Mars Pathfinder spacecraft used parachutes to decelerate, while relying on a unique airbag system that sprung into action in the final few seconds to absorb the landing shock. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed successfully on Mars with the same technique.

A few years later, theCuriosity rover used a new landing system. In the final few seconds, rockets were fired, allowing the spacecraft to hover while a tether a skycrane lowered the rover to the dusty Martian surface. This new system demonstrated the delivery of a heavy payload to Mars and paved the way for bigger missions.

More recently, the Perseverance rover which landed in early 2021, used the reliable skycrane as well as two more advanced technologies. These new features which used live images taken from its cameras enabled a more accurate, reliable and safer landing.

The Chinese Tianwen-1 rover landing is the next Mars mission. The ambitious mission has orbiting, landing, and roving components the first mission to include all three on its first attempt. It has already been circling the red planet since it entered Marss orbit on February 24 and will attempt to land its rover Zhurong which means fire god in mid-May.

In size, Zhurong falls between Spirit and the Perseverence and it is carrying six pieces of scientific equipment. After it lands, Zhurong will survey the surroundings to study Martian soil, geomorphology and atmosphere, and will look for signs of subsurface water ice.

Traditionally, the Chinese authorities dont reveal a lot of information before the event. However, based on an early overview of the mission by some Chinese researchers, we know the landing sequence the spacecraft will attempt to follow.

On May 17, Zhurong protected by an aeroshell (a protective shell surrounding the spacecraft which includes the heat shield) will enter the atmosphere at a speed of 4 km/s. When it slows down enough, parachutes will be deployed. In the last phase of the sequence, rockets with variable thrust engines will be used for further deceleration.

In contrast with its American counterpart, Tianwen-1 will employ two reliable technologies a laser range finder to work out where it is relative to Martian terrain and a microwave sensor to determine its speed more accurately. These will be used for navigational correction during its parachuted descent phase. During the powered descent phase at the end, optical and Lidar imaging will assist in hazard detection.

Just before touchdown, an automated obstacle avoidance sequence will start to ensure a soft landing. If the mission is successful, China will be the first country to land a rover on Mars on its first attempt. A few days after that, Zhurong will be ready to explore the surface.

This article byDeep Bandivadekar, PhD candidate, University of Strathclyde, is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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China to land a rover on Mars in mid-May here's how it'll work - The Next Web

According to the immortal words of Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum) Life..uhfinds a way. Back in 2005, an article in Nature used the famous quote from Jurassic Park to describe the possibility of life surviving on Mars. It encapsulates the hope that lifes adaptability, which it has proved itself so many times over on Earth, could hold true on other planets as well. Now a new paper in Astrobiology shows that there might very well be a place where life can sustain itself on the red planet right underneath the surface.

One thing that all life needs is an energy source. Typically, on Earth, that energy source is the sun. However, there are instances where life utilizes other energy sources, such as hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean. In fact, such environments are also thought to have existed on Mars in the past. The team behind the new paper, led by Jesse Tarnas, then a PhD student at Brown, found a slightly different non-solar energy source on Mars.

Water is a key ingredient to many chemical processes. Some of those processes release energy when they occur. Radiolysis occurs when rocks break apart water that is trapped in their porous structure and then bombarded with radiation from the decay of radioactive isotopes in the rock formation. The broken water molecules release elemental oxygen and hydrogen.

Each of those constituent molecules plays an important role in the biological process that sustains some types of microbes. The hydrogen is absorbed back into the water directly while the oxygen can react with other materials, such as pyrite (fools gold) to form a type of material known as sulfates. Bacteria have been found in isolated parts of the Earths subsurface that eat the dissolved hydrogen in the water and then use the sulfates the oxygen formed to burn away the hydrogen and produce the energy necessary to life. Entire colonies of these sulfate-burning bacteria have been found living a kilometer underground with no energy source other than the radiolysis process.

Dr. Tarnas team was interested in whether the materials needed to support that radiolysis process would be present in the Martian subsurface. Three of the main ingredients they were looking for were radioactive elements such as thorium or potassium, sulfides that could be converted into sulfate with the addition of oxygen, and porous rocks that could trap the water for long enough for the radiolysis process to take effect.

To find these ingredients, the team took a look at the most convenient sources Martian meteorites. They found that all three of the key ingredients for a radiolysis ecosystem were present in enough quantities in the meteorites they studied to support a bacterial colony similar to those found on the Earth.

This isnt the first time the Brown team took a look at this question. Back in 2018 they instead analyzed gamma ray spectroscopy data from Odyssey and came to a similar conclusion about the potential for life to spring up in Mars subsurface. Nor is the team at Brown the only one to search out this process off of Earth. Other teams have explored the potential for the process on ocean worlds.

Simply because the environmental conditions are right does not mean that a bacterial colony actually exists. So far there has been no conclusive evidence for the existence of life on Mars. But that doesnt stop scientists from looking. With the addition of this new research, there is now a stronger case for a mission specifically to look for life underground on the red planet. If a mission is launched, and life is eventually found there, then Mr. Goldblums famous quote will take on a whole new meaning.

Learn More:Brown Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life beneath its surface, study findsAstrobiology Earth-like Habitable Environments in the Subsurface of MarsMining.com Meteorites give clues of possible existence of present-day microbial life on MarsUT Youre Going to Need a Bigger Drill. The Best Place for Life on Mars is Deep, Deep Underground

Lead Image:Jesse Tarnas, the lead author on the paper, collecting samples in a mine shaft that could prove similar in environment to the subsurface of Mars.Credit: Jesse Tarnas

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Mars has the Right Conditions for Life Just Under the Surface - Universe Today

China has named its first-ever Mars rover "Zhurong" after an ancient fire god ahead of a landing attempt on the Red Planet in May.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) revealed the name at the sixth China Space Day held in Nanjing on Saturday (April 24).

Zhurong was the most popular of 10 shortlisted names for a public vote that opened in January, and that choice was backed by an expert panel and the CNSA itself.

Related: The latest news about China's space program

Going with the fire god is apt, for the Chinese name for Mars, "Huoxing," literally means "fire star."

The roughly 530-lb. (240 kilograms) solar-powered Zhurong rover is part of the Tianwen-1 mission, which launched in July 2020 and arrived in orbit around Mars in February.

The Tianwen-1 orbiter has been collecting high-resolution images of Zhurongs target landing site in Utopia Planitia. The landing attempt is expected in mid-May, according to a senior Chinese space scientist.

The rover carries panoramic and multispectral cameras and instruments to analyze the composition of rocks. Zhurong will also investigate subsurface characteristics with ground-penetrating radar, if all goes according to plan.

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Meet 'Zhurong': China names Tianwen-1 Mars rover ahead of mid-May landing attempt - Space.com

While NASAs Perseverance rover has been making news since reaching Mars in February, a 2016 study by Canadian geologists is also eliciting significant interest, for the clues it offers in the search for alien life, especially on the Red Planet.

The research, published in Nature Communications, is based on a discovery made by Dr Barbara Sherwood Lollar of the University of Toronto, who in 2009 extracted from a Canadian mine water that is 1.6 billion years old the oldest to be found on our planet.

The discovery of the water 2.4 km below the Earths surface has since been heralded as one of great importance, given its ramifications on what we know about the origin and evolution of our planet, the nature of water and life, as well as the possibility of finding life on Mars.

The worlds oldest water

Since 1992, Sherwood Lollar had been carrying out research at the Kidd Creek mine, located on the 2.7 billion-year-old Canadian Shield, one of the worlds largest continental shields meaning the oldest and least tectonically active parts of the Earths crust.

It was on an expedition in 2009 that a musty smell led Sherwood Lollar to make the crucial discovery. It literally is following your nose right up to the rock, to find the crack or the fractures where the water is discharging, she told the magazine Macleans. The water was highly saline ten times saltier than sea water.

According to the report, the researcher, who at the time was unaware of how old the water exactly was, sent a sample to UKs Oxford University, who informed her that it caused their mass spectrometer to break. Researchers then conducted studies for four years on the sample, finally settling at the 1.6 billion years figure.

What scientists found in the water

Investigations into the highly saline water led to a pathbreaking discovery: scientists found that chemolithotrophic microbes bacteria that can thrive in the most extreme surroundings had been able to survive in the subterranean liquid.

Researchers found that the microbes had been feeding on nitrogen and sulphate, and that the chemistry that supported them bore resemblance to ocean beds that are known to support similar such extreme life forms.

As it happens, the Canadian Shield, on which the Kidd mine is located, in the past used to form an ocean floor, as per the report. Over millions of years of flux, however, its horizontal seabed became vertical, now preserved in the mines rock walls from which the water sample was extracted.

Why this matters in the search for life on Mars

Being a continental shield, which suffers the least from plate tectonic activity, the Canadian Shield is the closest analogue on Earth to the subsurface of Mars, researchers believe.

Scientists argue that if life-supporting water can be found 2.4 km below the Earth, it may be possible that the same could be true in the case of the Red Planet. This hypothesis provides an impetus for missions like Perseverance, which are looking for signs of present or past life on Mars.

For her discovery, Sherwood Lollar was awarded the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering worth 1 million Canadian dollars in 2019, as well as the John C Polanyi Award by the countrys Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council in 2016, as per a Sciences Times report.

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Explained: Why finding the oldest water on Earth matters in the quest for life on Mars - The Indian Express

What sort of outer space movies are you a fan of? The action-packed, big-budgeters that have the word "Star" in the title, as well as either "Trek" or "Wars?" The message-heavy ones such as "2001: A Space Odyssey?" (yes, some of those messages were perplexing), or the cerebral ones like Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris" and Steven Soderbergh's remake of that film? (and in both of those cases, by "cerebral," I mean "boring").

"Stowaway" doesn't fit neatly into any of those categories. There are some good visual effects, but they're limited in number. There isn't a dull moment in it. Its main message is more on the order of "what would YOU do" if you were in this situation.

The plot starts out as a simple one. A three-person crew is being sent to Mars on a two-year mission that has to do with maintaining and sustaining long-term life there. The commander is Marina (Toni Collette), the doctor is Zoe (Anna Kendrick), the scientist is David (Daniel Dae Kim).

There's the loud and shaky lift-off, the docking with the space station where they'll live and work, the settling in, and the scraps of personal information (this is Marina's third and final mission, Zoe and David have brought their good-humored Harvard-Yale rivalry into space).

But about 15 minutes in I started wondering about the title. Where could someone be hiding out? How could anyone survive the takeoff if they weren't strapped in and had a personal oxygen supply?

Three minutes later, Marina sees a splotch of blood on the floor, unbolts a ceiling panel, and is fallen on by an injured and unconscious man. The scene is shocking and nicely done. The first line of dialogue is apt: "Who the hell is this?"

We soon find out he's Michael (Shamier Anderson), a launch support engineer who somehow got stuck on the ship (sorry, no explanation of how it happened is forthcoming). Since it's only 12 hours after launch, he pleads with the crew to turn it around and bring him back home.

Nope, that's not going to happen, says the practically inaudible radio voice of mission control - not NASA, but some corporation called Hyperion - to the commander. Keep going to Mars. Make do with the situation.

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And so the difficulties begin to pile up. The commander's left arm is broken due to Michael falling on her. The craft's Life Support Assembly was damaged. David's main science experiments - one of the major components of the expedition - are likely compromised. There's plenty of food onboard for an extra person, but that might not be the case as far as oxygen. And there's one other detail. This voyage to Mars was initially intended for two people, but the bean-counters at Hyperion figured out a method of retooling things to make room for three, at very little additional cost. It may not show, but some of the work is, shall we say, on the shoddy side. So, a ship that was made for two is now carrying four. And the sudden oxygen shortage is not helping matters.

The second half of the film deals with Hyperion simply not giving a damn about the crew, and ordering them to continue on with the mission, while the astronauts try to devise a method of survival. They know that if they can make it to Mars, where there is already a colony, they'll be OK. But the odds are against that happening, and there's quiet talk among the three actual crew members of continuing on without Michael.

So, there's that "what would you do in this situation" component.

"Stowaway"

Written by Joe Penna and Ryan Morrison; directed by Joe Penna

With Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson

Not Rated

It's a tough emotional grind for Marina, Zoe, and David, and that's amplified when Michael catches wind of what's going on. The situation seems impossible, but since this is science fiction, there's also a possible solution, one filled with risks and with no guarantee of succeeding. But it adds some good drama - and those visual effects - to the film.

A dangerous space walk includes a "ticking clock," tense music, spirit, bravery, and selflessness, all leading to an eerie, haunting, really moving ending.

"Stowaway" is now available on Netflix.

U.S. News and World Report's 2021 list of the BEST GEORGIA HIGH SCHOOLSincludes 22 Gwinnett County public high schools in the top 205 in the state. Click for more.

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Movie review: 'Stowaway' heads to Mars slowly and dramatically - Gwinnettdailypost.com

Challenge participants presented solutions aimed at improving patient outcomes and reducing time between diagnosis and treatment for lung cancer patients

Challenge winners includethe Kingston Health Sciences Centre and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, with solutions to help improve timely access to specialized care in rural South Eastern Ontario and accelerate lung cancer diagnosis and treatment through liquid biopsy

KIRKLAND, QC, April 28, 2021 /CNW/ -Merck Canada and MaRS Discovery District (MaRS) are proud to announce the winners of the Lung Cancer Innovation Challenge: the Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC), competition winner and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, runner up winner. The competition, which launched in January 2021, challenged Ontario-based innovators to identify, implement and scale solutions that could help enhance the lung cancer patient journey by seeking to reduce the length of time between diagnosis and treatment, and enable improved treatment outcomes, especially for priority patient groups such as rural and lower socioeconomic populations.

In 2020, approximately 30,000 new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed in Canada and more than 21,000 people died of the disease.1Alarmingly, the survival rate for lung cancer is among the lowest of all types of cancer and approximately half of all cases are diagnosed at stage 4, further worsening chances of survival.1,2

"From diagnosis to treatment, lung cancer patients face a huge number of access barriers, which may ultimately impact their health outcomes. Today this has been even further exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic," said AnnA Van Acker, President and Managing Director at Merck Canada. "As a patient-centric biotech company with a passion for and a focus on saving and improving lives, we know we need to play our part in finding solutions for patients, and that is why we partnered with MaRS on the Lung Cancer Innovation Challenge. We are very grateful and feel inspired by all participants who brought forth unique and innovative solutions. Together, we have the power to transform lung cancer care for the better!"

"We have been incredibly inspired by all of the solutions presented during the challenge,"said Alex Ryan, SVP, Partner Solutions at MaRS. "As North America's largest innovation hub, our focus at MaRS is on empowering new ideas that drive change, and this challenge has really showcased the best of local talent and of ingenuity. We hope that these winning solutions will grow and act as a blueprint to help improve outcomes for Ontario lung cancer patients."

Lung cancer's impact is particularly acute in Ontario, where an estimated 35 per cent of Canada's new lung cancer cases in 2020 were diagnosed.3However, on a positive note, Ontario is also a hub for best-in-class life sciences talent, with incubators, research organizations, private enterprises and academic institutions. More than half of Canada's Research and Development spending in the life sciences sector happens in Ontario and the province has been a driver for major breakthroughs in healthcare.4

"Ontario is a world-class centre for talent and innovative ideas," said Vic Fedeli, Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. "The challenge has been a great opportunity for Ontario-based innovators to showcase their skills and demonstrate the power of collaboration across different perspectives with the common goal of supporting lung cancer patients."

"Now more than ever, we need innovation and new ideas to better our healthcare system," said Nina Tangri, Parliamentary Assistant to the Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade. "On behalf of the Ontario Government, I would like to thank Merck Canada, MaRS and all of the participants for joining forces to launch this competition and to help improve outcomes for lung cancer patients."

Competition winner The Kingston Health Sciences Centre

$100,000 prize

KHSC runs the Lung Diagnostic Assessment Program, a rapid assessment clinic for patients with suspected lung cancer in South Eastern Ontario. The team won the competition with their solution to launch an outreach clinic in the Lennox and Addington County General Hospital, a community hospital located in a rural region of South Eastern Ontario.

Through the outreach clinic, patients referred to the program for evaluation of a suspected diagnosis of lung cancer and who live in Napanee or further west in Ontario will have the opportunity to select the community hospital as the site at which their first consultation with a respirologist can take place, versus needing to travel to the KHSC. Patients will undergo initial diagnostic and staging investigations locally where possible with more complex and sophisticated procedures being coordinated centrally through KHSC where required.

"Our team is composed of a multidisciplinary group of individuals with expertise in quality improvement and epidemiology, and we're constantly looking for opportunities to collaborate and improve through innovation," said Dr. Genevive C. Digby, Respirologist, Clinical Lead for the Diagnostic Assessment Programs at KHSC and team representative. "Together, we've launched several innovative system solutions to address local delays in lung cancer care during the diagnostic phase. We would like to thank this challenge for giving us a platform to present our proposal for this new outreach program, which will help more Ontarians diagnosed with lung cancer get timely access to specialized care."

Competition runner-up - The Lung Cancer Site Group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

$50,000 prize

The Lung Cancer Site Group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre - one of the top five cancer research centres in the world - came in second place with their proposal to help significantly reduce the time between diagnosis and treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Their solution proposes the use of a liquid biopsy versus the conventional diagnostic pathway of molecular testing of tumour tissue after imaging and biopsy.

The team proposes that this "blood-first" approach could enable faster turnaround time for molecular results, as blood samples can be processed while patients await their diagnostic tissue biopsy. Molecular information from liquid biopsies can help diagnose and discover molecular targets faster than with standard tissue biopsy and tissue testing, which could allow patients to start treatment faster than through the conventional diagnostic pathway.

"Our team at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is passionate about getting the right treatment to the right person as soon as possible," said Dr. Natasha B. Leighl, Thoracic Medical Oncology Site Lead, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and team representative. "We are testing whether our solution to incorporate liquid biopsy into our Lung Cancer Rapid Assessment and Management Program will help get patients to treatment faster, with fewer delays and avoiding extra tests. This could change the way we diagnose lung cancer in Ontario, and have a positive impact for patients."

Please go here for more information and to learn more about the winning solutions.

About MerckFor more than 125 years, Merck, known as MSD outside ofthe United StatesandCanada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases in pursuit of our mission to save and improve lives. We demonstrate our commitment to patients and population health by increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to prevent and treat diseases that threaten people and animals including cancer, infectious diseases such as HIV and Ebola, and emerging animal diseases as we aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world.

About MaRSMaRS is North America's largest urban innovation hub. A registered non-profit, MaRS supports high-growth startups and scale-ups tackling key issues in health, cleantech, fintech and other sectors. In addition, MaRS convenes all members of the tech ecosystem to drive breakthrough discoveries, grow the economy and make an impact by solving real problems for real people in Canada and around the world.

References

SOURCE Merck Canada

For further information: Merck Canada Media Relations, 1-833-906-3725 or [emailprotected], MaRS Media Relations, [emailprotected]

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Merck Canada and MaRS Announce Winners of the Lung Cancer Innovation Challenge - Canada NewsWire