There is a legend that at the time of the founding of "Cairo".. this planet appeared clear and manifest in its sky.. and that is why among the names it bears is the name "Al-Qahir" (the Vanquisher)..

"Mars"..

The Red Planet.. because of the iron oxide that blankets its surface...

On October 30, 1938, over the radio in the United States.. the voice of the director "Orson Welles" went out live on air.. announcing the arrival of Martian spaceships from Mars.. and the descent of the Martian invaders from them.. green-skinned.. hard-hearted.. with giant machines.. walking on 3 legs.. and the beginning of their all-out war on humans.. to occupy Earth..

And with the terrifying radio broadcast.. thousands.. and perhaps millions of American citizens set off fleeing the cities.. and calls poured into police and emergency departments.. and in some cases they preferred suicide.. and killed themselves with their own hands.. rather than be killed or enslaved by the Martian invaders..

Few at the time realized that the program was not talking about a real invasion.. it was merely a dramatic setup for "H. G. Wells's" wonderful story "The War of the Worlds".. about the invaders who came from Mars to occupy our Earth.. and our weapons and armies failed to stand up to them.. and they nearly won indeed.. had they not collided with our microbes.. which their immune system could not withstand.. so they met their deaths on the surface of Earth..

This planet greatly fired the imagination of science fiction writers... even though Mars is a small planet.. the second smallest planet in the Solar System.. but it resembles our planet Earth in many things..

A day on Mars is almost like our day.. but forty minutes longer.. 24 hours and 40 minutes..

The year is longer than the day, of course.. but it is also longer than our year.. its length is 687 days.. and its gravity is a third of our gravity.. meaning if your weight is 100 kilos on Earth.. it becomes 30 kilos on Mars..

And Mars has seasons like our seasons...

7 months of spring.. and 6 months of summer.. and 5 months and three weeks of autumn.. and about 4 months of winter...

And the temperature on Mars is suitable for life.. for in the southern hemisphere it reaches 30 degrees Celsius in summer.. and 20 degrees below zero in other places.. just as Earth's weather differs from Moscow to Cairo..

This difference in temperatures sometimes causes violent storms.. especially when Mars approaches the Sun.. and Mars has the largest volcanic mountain in the entire Solar System.. called "Olympus Mons".. and its area is approximately the same as the area of France..

Mars has two poles like Earth.. and on it are quantities of ice.. Martian ice, if it melted, would cover the surface of Mars with water to a depth of up to 11 meters..

There is a very tiny amount of water in its atmosphere.. water generally does not exist on Mars in the liquid form we have because Mars lost most of its atmosphere in the past.. and the atmospheric pressure there became about 1% of our atmospheric pressure...

Sometimes the ice melts and there is liquid water, but only under extremely special conditions and in very tiny quantities.. never enough to incubate any form of life..

But the planet at one time had seas on it.. and rivers and water.. traces of lakes still exist.. traces of marine salts.. and traces of salts that are only formed in the presence of water, such as "Jarosite"..

And on March 18, 2013, NASA spoke of the existence of water beneath the surface of Mars.. and traces of frozen rivers..

Meaning at one time there was water.. and rivers and seas and rain.. and life..

The life that was on Mars, NASA suggests, was very primitive and bacterial.. while other scientists indicated the opposite, as we will see.. and said that it was mature, rational, intelligent life like humans...

And Mars has two moons shining in its skies.. "Phobos" and "Deimos".. the orbit of "Phobos" is much faster than the orbit of "Deimos" and its path is closer.. and it does not complete its cycle in a whole month like our moon.. no.. in only 11 hours..

And the thin atmosphere of Mars is almost entirely carbon dioxide.. at 96%.. and the rest is hydrogen and oxygen and other gases.. and a little water...

How did life end on the surface of Mars? And where did its atmosphere and all the water that was on it go?

There is a theory saying that this happened because of a violent bombardment by giant meteorites.. which made holes in the atmosphere.. that let the solar wind interact directly with the ionosphere layer.. and tore apart most of the atmosphere..

There are enormous craters on the surface of Mars that are suggested to be indeed meteorite strikes.. this is the most likely and most logical of theories..

But some scientists who studied these craters and studied Mars as a whole.. put forward another strange theory..

A theory saying that Mars did indeed have water and seas and oceans on it.. and creatures like us...

A rational civilization.. that dominated Mars.. and populated it.. and then corrupted it until they all went extinct...

Rational, intelligent life like us..

It dominated the planet for millions of years..

And it harnessed the science it possessed to facilitate the means of life..

And then disputes began among the people of Mars...

And the war began..

The nuclear one..

500 million years ago..

And with the nuclear explosions.. the climate of Mars was disturbed and its atmosphere disintegrated.. and the Sun was obscured and plants died.. and the land turned to desert.. and life perished..

The proponents of this theory say: that these meteorite craters are in reality not meteorite craters.. they are the sites of the nuclear explosions that occurred..

An outrageous theory.. but Dr. "John Brandenburg" put forward an even more outrageous theory..

"Brandenburg" said that there was indeed rational, intelligent life.. but it was approximately like us in the Bronze Age.. still primitive.. people who hunt and eat and gather fruits and make swords and spears..

And this nascent civilization collided with another civilization..

A more advanced and more powerful civilization.. from another planet.. that annihilated it with nuclear weapons, root and branch...

And he cited as evidence NASA images and recordings.. which he says clearly point to the site of two airburst explosions on the planet.. and spectral survey images that indicate the presence of a thin layer of uranium and some radioactive materials.. on the surface of the planet..

But scientists responded to "Brandenburg" and said that what he sees as an airburst explosion is an optical illusion in the images.. and merely dust storms..

But the man is adamant in his position.. and asks about the secret of the missions to Mars in particular.. and points out that the major powers are trying to reach traces of any advanced technology or weapons.. left over from this war.. to make a giant leap in the world of armament..

And Dr. "Jonti Horner" responded and said that it is a charming theory that stirs the imagination.. but unfortunately it is not true..

And the debate is still ongoing between them.. and some people say that "Brandenburg" is an idiot.. and some say he is one of the "conspiracy theory" types.. and some believe him.. while other scientists are studying the possibility of launching rockets.. that create certain reactions in the Martian climate.. making it rich in nitrogen and oxygen..

And then, it could possess an atmosphere like it once had..

And the temperature changes and rain falls..

Meaning water..

And life..

And there are scientists who dream that Mars becomes an alternative to Earth..

An alternative homeland after a devastating nuclear war.. or because of the excessive pollution we are witnessing..

So instead of trying to respect the environment where we are.. and preserve our Earth.. we destroy it until it ends and we go to another planet to populate it and then destroy it too..

It is all scientific debates and conflicts..

And the Red Planet, named after the Greek god of war, revolves in its orbit in silence.. telling no one about its history and its past...

I wonder, is there water running in the depths of Mars?

Are there bacteria?

No one knows..

After Mars comes the turn of "Jupiter".. the largest of the planets in the Solar System.. and this is the next planet that will give the talk.. a continuation...

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References

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1 - Williams, David R. (September 1, 2004). "Mars Fact Sheet". National Space Science Data Center...

2 - Mars'seasons: https://goo.gl/GYZtQG

3 - "Olympus Mons". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program...

4 - https://goo.gl/HTMPb0

5 - Zubrin, Robert; Wagner, Richard (1997). The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must...

6 - منشورات سابقة:

- https://goo.gl/H5ttvo

- https://goo.gl/F8BG9o

- https://goo.gl/H5Hihz

- https://goo.gl/g0Yhwk