Welcome to my new video.Mars is known as the Red Planet because iron minerals in the soil oxidize, giving it and the atmosphere the distinctive colour. Humans have been fascinated by Mars probably since the first of the species turned their gaze to the night sky. Space exploration today attests to that continuing fascination.Since the 1960s, more than 40 missions have tried to reach the Red Planet. As a result, there are currently three rovers active on the Martian surface, plus one lander and one helicopter, while eight orbiters circle the planet.Many of the planets and moons in our solar system are very interesting, but Mars is a little special, said François Forget, an atmospheric scientist at Sorbonne University in France. ‘Nowadays, Mars is quite similar to Earth, but in the past –3 to 4 billion years ago it was even more similar.
While the extensive exploration to date has produced a wealth of geological data, plenty remains unknown about the fourth planet from the Sun.
Signs exist of a once vast ocean covering Mars northern hemisphere, while elsewhere lie scars carved out by rivers and glaciers.
Yet the climatic processes that shaped the planet observed today remain a mystery.As far back as 4 billion years ago, when life started to appear on Earth, Mars had rivers and lakes of liquid water. This raises the possibility that life also developed on Mars.
But scientists are also interested in the processes that created the dry, desert planet seen today and what they could reveal about Earth’s climate.
Areas of Mars surface are more than 3 billion years old. Such records are unavailable on Earth as it has been fundamentally altered by life, which has erased much of the planet’s early history.
Something else also makes Mars special: it is a place where astronauts are hoping to go at some point.
The European Space Agency, or ESA, and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA are working towards sending astronauts to Mars. Thank you for watching.
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