Early Times

BEFORE 1500 (the first observations of Mars)

In the earliest days of Mars observation, all that was known about it was that it appeared to be a fiery red and followed a strange loop in the sky, unlike any other.

THE BABYLONIANS
The Babylonians studied astronomy as early as 400 BC, and developed advanced methods for predicting astronomical events such as eclipses. They made careful observations for their calendars and religious reasons, but never attempted to explain the phenomena they witnessed. The Babylonians called Mars Nergal - the great hero, the king of conflicts.

THE EGYPTIANS
The Egyptians were the first to notice that the stars seem "fixed" and that the sun moves relative to the stars. They also noticed five bight objects in the sky (Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn) that seemed to move in a similar manner. They called Mars Har Decher - the Red One.

THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
Greeks called the planet Ares after their god of war, while the Romans called it Mars. Its sign is thought to be the shield and sword of Mars.

1500s

THE 1500s (Tycho Brahe uses his eyes)

Tycho Brahe

The Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe (1546 - 1601) made surprisingly accurate calculations of the position of Mars 200 years before the telescope was invented! In 1576, Brahe set up an observatory in Hven, an island near Copenhagen where he studied the stars for 20 years. Using keen eyesight and large instruments, he calculated the position of Mars to within four minutes of arc.

1600s

THE 1600s (The first telescopes see Mars)

Tycho Brahe

1609
Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630), a student of Tycho Brahe, publishes Astronomia Nova (New Astronomy), which contain his first two laws of planetary motion. Kepler's first law assumes that Mars has an elliptical orbit, which was a revolutionary idea at the time. Until then, the classical belief held that a circle was perfect, and therefore all orbits must be circular.

1609
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) observes Mars with a primitive telescope, becoming the first person to use it for astronomical purposes.

1659
The Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 1695) draws Mars using an advanced telescope of his own design. He records a large, dark spot on Mars, probably Syrtis Major. He notices that the spot returns to the same position at the same time the next day, and calculates that Mars has a 24 hour period.

1666
Giovanni Cassini (1625 - 1712) observes Mars and determines that the rotational period, or length of one Mars day is 24h, 40m.

1672
Huygens is the first to notice a white spot at the south pole, probably the southern polar cap.

1698
Huygens publishes Cosmotheros, which discusses what is required of a planet to support life, and speculates about intelligent extraterrestrials. This is one of the first published expositions of extraterrestrial life.

1700s

THE 1700s (The era of the telescope)

1704
Giancomo Miraldi observes "white spots" at the poles, and discovers that the southern cap is not centered on the rotational pole.

1719
Miraldi wonders (correctly) if the "white spots" are ice caps.

1719
Mars is in opposition, and closer to Earth than it would be until the year 2003. The brightness in the sky causes panic.

1727
Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels described the Martian moons, although this may just be coincidence. "They have likewise discovered two lesser Stars, or Satellites, which revolve around Mars, wherof the innermost is distant from the Center of the Primary planet exactly three of his diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves in the Space of ten Hours and the latter in Twenty-one and a Half."

1777-1783
Sir William Herschel (1738 - 1822), the British Astronomer Royal, studied Mars with telescopes he built himself. Herschel believed that all the planets were inhabited and that there were even intelligent beings living in a cool area under the surface of the sun.

1784
In Herschel's paper, entitled On the remarkable appearances at the polar regions on the planet Mars, the inclination of its axis, the position of its poles, and its spheroidal figure; with a few hints relating to its real diameter and atmosphere., which declares the axial tilt to be 30 degrees. (The actual current value is 25.19 degrees.) Herschel also mistakenly assumed that the dark areas on Mars were oceans, and the lighter regions land. When two faint stars passed very close to Mars with no effect to their brightness, Herschel correctly assumed that Mars had a tenuous atmosphere. He speculated that Martian inhabitants "probably enjoy a situation similar to our own."

1800s

THE 1800s (The Canal Craze)

1809
Honore Flaugergues, a French amateur astronomer, notices "yellow clouds" on the surface of Mars, which were later found to be dust clouds.

1813
Flaugergues notices that the polar ice cap melts significantly in the Martian spring. He concludes that this implies that Mars is hotter than Earth.

1840
Wilhelm Beer (1797 - 1850) and Johann von Maedler (1794 - 1874) observe Mars over periods of 759, 1604, and 2234 days, and determine that the rotational period of Mars is 24 hours, 37 minutes, 22.6 seconds, which is surprisingly close to the currently accepted value of 24 hours, 37 minutes, 22.7 seconds.

1854
William Whewell concludes that Mars has green seas and red land, and wonders if there is extraterrestrial life.

1858
Angelo Secci (1818 - 1878), a Jesuit monk, draws Mars and calls Syrtis Major the "Atlantic Canal".

1862
Frederik Kaiser calculated the rotational period of Mars to be 24 hours, 37 minutes, 22.62 seconds (Today's accepted value - 24h, 37m, 22.663 +/-0.002s.

1867
Richard Anthony Proctor publishes a map of Mars with continents and oceans. His choice of zero meridian is still the currently accepted convention.

1867
Pierre Jules Janssen (1824 - 1907), Sir William Huggins (1824 - 1910) make the first (unsuccessful) attempt to detect water vapor and oxygen spectroscopically.

1877
Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835 - 1910) develops a nomenclature for mapping the features of Mars. The names are drawn from mythology, history, and various terms for hell.

1877
Schiaparelli uses the term "canali" to describe the streaks on the surface of Mars. This is wrongly thought to mean "canals," and is thought to imply that Mars has intelligent life that has built a system of canals.

1877
Asaph Hall discovers the moons of Mars. He names them Phobos (fear) and Deimos (fright), after the horses of the Greek war god, Ares (counterpart to the Roman war god, Mars).

1879
Schiaparelli observes double "canali", to him an example of "germination".

1894
Percival Lowell (1855 - 1916) begins observation of Mars at his observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. That same year, Edward Emerson Barnard (1857 - 1923) reports that he has found no evidence of canals on Mars.

1895
Percival Lowell publishes Mars.

Historical Perspective...

The Canal Craze begins!

In 1877, Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835 - 1910) announces that he has seen "canali" on Mars. If translated correctly, this announcement would have been interpreted as "channels", but with the excitement building over the Suez Canal, it was translated as "canals", and thus began a detour in the history of Mars exploration.

Historical Perspective...

Although the telescope was invented in the 1600s, and first used for astronomical purposes by Galileo in 1609, it did not have an astronomical impact until the 1700s. While science in the 1600s was hampered by the Inquisition, scientists in the 1700s enjoyed a much greater degree of freedom. The telescopes of the 1600s were primitive, while those of the following century were much larger and more powerful. Miraldi made his observations with the Campani Telescope in the Paris Observatory.

Newton designed the first reflector to be used in a telescope and presented it to the Royal Society of London in 1672, but the metals used in mirrors at that time could not be polished adequately. In 1722, John Hadley produced a reflector that performed well.

Herschel was a major innovator in the world of telescopes. He found that the long telescopes were difficult to manage and that the reflectors of the day were prohibitively expensive, so he attempted to create his own. After many attempts, he made a working reflector. Eventually, he would create some of the most advanced telescopes of the day, with focal lengths of 2.1-m, 2.7-m, and 6.1-m.

With the increases in telescope quality and availability, scientists of the 1700s paved the way for future Mars research. These telescopes allowed the discovery of the Martian polar ice caps, and many significant features of the Martian terrain. Hundreds of years later, many of the results from the 1700s have been corroborated by experimental evidence.

Historical Perspective...

The Trial of Galileo

The 1600s were not an easy time in which to study science. The church was a powerful institution and had its own ideas about the nature of the universe. Galileo was a beliver in the Copernican theory that the solar system revolves around the sun. He was advised by Cardinal Bellarmino to be cautious and not to imply the the Copernican theory were real. He published a book, Siderius Nuncius (Starry Messenger) which was considered controversial and in opposition with the ideas of the Roman Catholic Church, and was arrested and tried in the Inquisition. Galileo was found guilty of heresy and was sentenced to life imprisonment and forced to recant. In secret, he wrote another book, which was smuggled out of the country and published in France. His work is now considered the foundation of modern physics.

Historical Perspective...

In the 1500s, people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and everything revolved around our planet. A revolutionary idea was published in 1543 by Nicolaus Copernicus. He provided mathematical evidence for a heliocentric universe, one where the planets in the solar system revolve around the sun. This theory was formed two hundred years before the telescope was invented, using his eyes to watch the heavens. Unfortunately, Copernicus never knew what a change his theory would cause in the scientific community, as his theory was published at the end of his life, and was not widely accepted until about 100 years after his death.

Historical Perspective...

(Mars, the God of War)

Greek and Roman mythology tells of the god of war, the son of Zeus and Hera, who was despised by his parents. The Greeks called him Ares, and the Romans called him Mars. The Greeks portrayed him as hateful and murderous, yet a coward, as shown in Homer's Illiad. The Romans, who glorified war, and considered him a mighty warrior. Some Romans worshipped him, even leaving sacrifices at his altar.