It's November 28th, ♂️ Red Planet Day. On this day in 1964, 🇺🇸 NASA launched the Mariner 4 spacecraft on a 216-million-kilometer journey to Mars. It took a long time to get there. The spacecraft made its closest approach on July 15th, 1965, when it took the first photos of another planet from space. The pictures surprisingly revealed many lunarlike impact craters, some of them rimmed with frost in the chill Martian evening.
Back on Earth, NASA's engineers managed to extend the Mariner 4's planned eight-month long mission out to about three years. During that time, the spacecraft sent back key information about the solar wind and about how to safely deliver future missions to the Martian surface.
Red Planet Day commemorates this early NASA success story. On this day, we celebrate human observers' thousands-of-years-long fascination with Mars, along with all the scientific achievements that have increased our understanding of our mysterious neighbor.
The naked human eye is able to detect the reddish tinge of our solar system’s fourth planet as it glimmers in the night sky. The 🇮🇶 Babylonians called Mars “Nergal,” the King of Conflicts, associating the planet’s color with that of the blood spilled during battles with their enemies. The ancient 🇬🇷 Greeks and 🇮🇹 Romans made the same association – both Ares and Mars, respectively, were known as the God of War. We now know, of course, that the red color of the Martian surface comes not from blood, but from a preponderance of iron oxide, common rust.
But what we still don't know is, "Does life exist on Mars?" What if? ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet
