WHy has mars been the planet most studied telescopically?
79918
Because it's closest to Earth and doesn't have much of a cloud layer like Venus does.
347063
Well extraterrestial planet hunting is only just beginning to be able to discover "smaller" planets. As before only the giant ones indicated their presence, by the effect of their gravity on the parent star.\nRemember even the most powerful telescopes on earth merely see a distant star as a point of light.\nAs for a signal, surveillance equipment is steadily becoming more sophisticated, and discoveries are continously being made to enhance the resolving power of the apparatus. \nMy view is life will not be that common, but a fair few systems will have, or have had life on them at some point. I am sure that in the next twenty years, an umistakeable signal, either intentional or not will be received on earth, and we will know that we are not alone.
486667
The rotation of Venus is believed to have been caused by a huge planetary impact that occurred very very early in the formation of the planet.  A similar event is thought to have happened to Earth and it lead the the formation of the Moon.  As for life previously existing on Mars, I think it is possible.  However it was probably only microscopic bacteria-like organisms.  We will never now until humans do some on-site digging in the Martian crust.
104359
In a few years we will be able to take readings of the atmospheres of exoplanets. That´s about it. But we could still be able to detect life on such a planet by studying it´s atmosphere. Molecular oxygen can´t be explained in another way.
879967
if you have a good enough telescope - you can see some stuff.\nyou can also see the robotic tractor that was left on Mars. (though you need more than a standard telescope for that)\nIt has been done by many people
912759
Hey Visit \n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars
426704
It depends on a variety of things: the angle of entry into the atmosphere, the size of the comet, the composition of the comet, etc.\n\nAn interesting note: one of the proposals for terraforming Mars is to use ice-coments to raise the amount of water vapor, create a greenhouse effect, and both warm the planet and add to the water on Mars.
719596
Well Scientists have long speculated about the possibility of life on Mars due to that planet's proximity and similarity to Earth. It remains an open question whether life exists on Mars now, or existed there in the past.\nIt has long been speculated that there may be life on Mars, due to the many similarities the planet has with Earth. Mars' polar ice-caps were observed as early as the mid-17th century, and they were first proven to grow and shrink alternately, in the summer and winter of each hemisphere, by William Herschel in the latter part of the 18th century. By the mid-19th century, astronomers knew that Mars had certain other similarities to Earth, for example that the length of a day on Mars was almost the same as a day on Earth. They also knew that its axial tilt was similar to Earth's, which meant it experienced seasons just as Earth does - but of nearly double the length owing to its much longer year. These observations led to the increase in speculation that the darker albedo features were water, and brighter ones were land. It was therefore natural to suppose that Mars may be inhabited by some form of life.\n\nSpeculation about life on Mars exploded in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation of apparent canals — which were later found to be optical illusions. In 1854 William Whewell, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who popularized the word scientist, theorized that Mars had seas, land and possibly life forms. In 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization. This idea led British writer H. G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds in 1897, telling of an invasion by aliens from Mars who were fleeing the planet’s desiccation.\n\nBetter telescope imagery, and especially the photos taken by the Mariner 4 probe in 1965 showed an arid Mars without rivers, oceans or any signs of life. Intense UV radiation made the planet extremely hostile to life as we know it. Officially the Viking lander's tests for microbes in 1976 were inconclusive, but most scientists hold that their findings can be explained on the basis of chemical reactions alone. Observations made in the late 1990's by the Mars Global Surveyor confirmed the suspicion that Mars, unlike Earth, no longer possessed a substantial global magnetic field, thus allowing potentially life-threatening cosmic radiation to reach the planet's surface. Scientists also speculate that the lack of shielding due to Mars' diminished global magnetic field helped the solar wind blow away much of Mars' atmosphere over the course of several billion years.\n\n\n\n \nThe electron microscope revealed bacteria-like structures in meteorite fragment ALH84001 \nA series of artist's conceptions of hypothetical past water coverage on Mars.In recent years speculation has grown again, however – prodded by a study of the ALH84001 meteorite which concluded that it contained fossilized microbes. Other scientists have subsequently sought to explain these findings on the basis of chemical processes. Both remain highly controversial within the scientific community.\n\nAnother glimmer of hope for past and present life on Mars has been revealed with the ongoing research into extremophiles on Earth which survive under the harshest conditions. Some scientists have proposed a biological origin for the annual appearance and disappearance of dark dune spots near the polar regions of Mars.\n\n\n\nNo Mars probe since Viking has tested the Martian soil directly for signs of life. NASA's recent missions have focused on another question: whether Mars held lakes or oceans of liquid water on its surface in the ancient past. Many scientists have long held this to be almost self-evident based on various geological landforms on the planet, but others have proposed different explanations - wind erosion, carbon dioxide oceans,
347602
It's called 'retrograde' and it is has to do with how the orbits of Earth and Mars differ. Here's a good source for you, \nhttp://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/Retrograde/\nhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allabout/nightsky/nightsky04.html
1143471
In my astronomy 310 class we discussed missions to Mars, and my professor explained that it COULD be done in a couple years - if there was public interest in it. Since there isn't, and since probes to Mars have been relatively unexciting other than telling us that it used to have water on it before it all evaporated, not many people are too interested in going to a super-hot, rusty, dead planet.
1022794
on Saturday, June 17, Mars and Saturn were\n"lined up" as seen from the Earth  - some might\nrefer to this as a collision, but it is not of course\npossible for them to actually collide, only to \nappear to do so in the sky.  Even then, the path\nof Mars took it just north of Saturn's placement\nin the sky... this is an event that occurs roughly\nevery two years, so is not so rare.  Much more\nrare is when Mars occults Saturn (Saturn\nactually disappears behind the disk of Mars)\nThe odds of that happening are extremely\nsmall, and I doubt if it would happen more\nthan once per thousand years...
719900
If you’re asking about the research discipline of “planetary geology,” then its origins are rather recent.  Speculation existed about the nature of other planets’ surfaces—e.g., Lowell’s canals on Mars or the oft-envisioned swamps of Venus—but until we started sending spacecraft to explore the worlds and bring back data, such speculations didn’t amount to much of a science.\n\nMost would consider Eugene Shoemaker (1928–1997) the founder of planetary geology; he started the Astrogeology Research Program of the United States Geological Survey in 1961.  Shoemaker’s focus was on asteroids and meteorites, but with increasing quantities of data returned to Earth by missions to Mars, Venus, and other locales, the science grew to encompass many different worlds.\n\nPlanetary geologists study the origin, evolution, and structure of planets and their moons, as well as comets and asteroids.  (The more general term “planetary science” includes disciplines that include orbital dynamics, planetary atmospheres, and so forth.)  Of course, Earth provides a spectacular example of geological processes at work, but many of them (plate tectonics, for example) are unique to our home world.  Nonetheless, interesting analogies exist to the kind of events that may have taken place on other planets, moons, and such, so the challenge is to know what to learn from the well-known terrestrial science of geology and when to keep an open mind.\n\n(At least that’s my best shot.  My background is in astronomy, though, so details of this description might be a little off.)\n\nFor some interesting popular-level articles on the topic of planetary geology, take a look at links on the Geology News website:\nhttp://geology.rockbandit.net/category/planetary-geology/\n\n\nRyan Wyatt\nRose Center for Earth & Space\nNew York, New York
426189
see for yourself.\n\nhttp://marsrovers.nasa.gov/home/index.html
994713
MARS... quite possible
150349
The Mysteries of Mars \n\nWhy did so many of the early cultures worship the Planet Mars?  They were terrified of this strange planet.  It was called the "God of War." Why?  (The term "martial arts" is still in our working vocabulary.) And there are other mysteries that seem to be associated with this strange planet.\n\nThe recent space age discovery of "orbital resonance"-the tendency of orbits to synchronize on a multiple of one another--has led to a fascinating conjecture that the orbits of the Earth and the Planet Mars were once on resonant orbits of 360 days and 720 days, respectively.  A computer analysis has suggested that this could yield orbital interactions that would include a near pass-by on a multiple of 54 years, and this would occur on either March 25 or October 25. Such near pass-bys would transfer energy, altering the orbits of each.\n\nIn near proximity, such pass-bys would be accompanied by meteors, severe land tides, earthquakes, etc., and this would help explain why all the ancient cultures were so terrified by the Planet Mars and why calendars tended to reflect either March or October.  A series of such pass-bys could also explain a number of the "catastrophes" of ancient history, including the famous "long day of Joshua" and several other Biblical episodes. \n\nStability appears to have been attained during the last near pass-by in 701 B.C., resulting in Earth's and Mars' present orbits of 365 1/4 days and 687 days, respectively.  Provocative, but where's the evidence?\n\nThis remarkable conjecture, that Mars made pass-bys near the Earth, would seem to be corroborated by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) in his famous fantasy known as Gulliver's Travels.  In his third voyage, Gulliver visits the land of Laputa, where the astronomers brag that they know all about the two moons of Mars.  Their highly detailed description includes the size, the rotation, the revolutions, etc., of each of the two moons. \n\nWhat makes this particular allusion so provocative is that the two moons of Mars were not discovered by astronomers until 151 years after Swift's publication of Gulliver's Travels in 1726.  It was in 1877 that Asaph Hall, using a new telescope at the U.S. Naval Observatory, shocked the astronomical world by discovering the two moons of Mars. \n\nWhat makes the two moons so difficult to see is that they are only about 8 miles in diameter and have an albedo (reflectivity) of only 3%.  They are the darkest objects in the solar system: they are almost black.  The two moons are also unique in their rotations and one of them is the only object in the solar system that orbits in reverse.  For Swift to have "guessed" these correctly is absurd.  \n\nYet the telescopes of his day were inadequate to have actually seen these objects.  But then how could he have known what the astronomers of his day did not? Swift, in order to embroider his satirical fiction, undoubtedly drew upon ancient records he probably assumed were simply legends, not realizing that they were actually eye witness accounts of ancient sightings when Mars was close enough for the two moons of Mars to be viewed with the naked eye!\n\nOther Implications \n\nThe possibility that the Planet Mars interacted with the Planet Earth may have implications beyond simply ancient perturbations of our calendar and the subsequent veneration of October 31 as Halloween. It has been widely noted that the ancient Stonehenge monument in England and the Great Pyramid at Cairo have astronomical implications.  The geometric and mathematical mysteries of these fabled monuments have been the subject of much conjecture.  Cairo was founded on August 5, A.D. 969 by conquering Fatimid armies and named, "Al Kahira," after Mars.  Why?\n\nAnd there are other enigmas.\n\nThe Nebular Hypothesis \n\nMost of us have been taught that the planets of our solar system came out of the sun. It may come as
139087
I went and did some investigation. It definitely looks to me like the Cydonia "pyramids" are real features on the surface of Mars. However, the question is, are these natural features, or are they artificial? \n\nOf course they might be artificial, and we won't know until we get more data. However, using Occam's Razor (i.e.,the simplest answer is the best) and erring on the side of caution, I would say that the evidence is that these are just natural formations (including the "face"; see reference). \n\nHuman beings are clearly wired for apophenia (also known as the clustering illusion; seeing patterns that are not really there), and in particular, for pareidolia (experiencing optical illusions). Humans are hired-wired to see patterns, and especially faces. On closer examination, and from different angles, a lot of the resemblance of the features on Mars to regular pyramids, or of the "face" to a human face or a lion's face, just disappear. Some of the features of the face were actually due to artefacts in the imaging system!\n\nHere are some other famous examples of pareidolia:\n\nman in the moon\nold man of the mountain NH (collapsed 2003)\nnapoleon's nose rock formation (north of belfast)\n\nThis phenomenon is the basis of  Rorschach inkblot test, even. \n\nIt is hard to imagine that if there had been life on Mars, that they would have left more evidence than that. Also, surely our tests for life on the surface would have produced better evidence.\n\nThis does not mean that it is absolutely impossible that these features are artificial. However, especially given Hoagland's checkered history (see reference), and the lack of evidence, I would say that it is a low probability event. The threshold for belief that these features are artificial is understandably quite high. For outrageous claims, one needs outrageous proof.
562236
Its earth and venus...the reason behind it is due to their some what similar size, mass of planet, rotation and revolution time and gases in some cases. hope so u satisfied with my answer.