Mysteries of Mars

There are countless web sites about Mars and countless pundits who hold themselves up as experts on the planet. Mac Tonnies has been running his own web site about the planet for some time now, from which he offers considered and insightful opinion on the subject of developmental research and discovery on Mars.Many people have come to value his well thought-out and measured analysis and his reputation has grown significantly over the last few years as someone who can be relied upon for soundness and common sense, a trait that separates him from the more extreme protagonists in thefield.He was kind enough to give Stuart Miller some time and they spoke at length about exactly what’s going on up there. SM: Reading through the introduction to your last book, the one key point that seems to stand out in relation to your initial interest was the Face.MT: Yes, that was the catalyst, although there’s more to it than the Face.

But it does catch the attention -- which may or may not have been the purpose of making it, if it is in fact made.SM: When you say it’s not the only thing, are you talking about the traces of possible artefacts and other evidence?MT: Yes. In the Cydonia region there are other massive objects of the same size and orientation as the Face. They have the same axis of symmetry.There is circumstantial evidence that maybe the Face is somethingother than just a geological oddity.Of course you can have geological processes that produce massive objects on the landscape that are oriented in the same direction due to wind or water or whatever. But there’s a certain level of redundancy in Cydonia that's pretty engaging and I think warrants a careful look just in case.SM: Having jumped straight in, can I take a step back and ask you to tell us a little bit about yourself and your background? Was it in 1998 that you started the web site?MT: The reason I started the site was because I was on an e-mail mailing list devoted to science and technology issues. There was an opportunity to photograph the Face with the Mars Global Surveyor coming up and I just dropped a note in passing about it on the list, thinking it was interesting. As it was, the photo was never taken. But thereaction wa......

In August 1996, a group of scientists announced that they had found evidence of ancient life on Mars. This evidence included bacteria-shaped objects and organic chemical molecules in the martian meteorite ALH 84001, which was collected in Antarctica. In the next few days, NASA presented the work at a press conference, the President made a statement about it, and the TV and papers were full of reports, speculation, and jokes about life on Mars.

Most of the world was unprepared for possible traces of martian life in a meteorite. Collecting meteorites in Antarctica was novel; the idea of martian meteorites was bizarre; knowledge of Mars was sketchy; and knowledge of primitive life on Earth was limited. Much of the important information is hidden in technical journals, written by specialists for specialists.

With this slide set, we hope to make some of this information accessible. The slide set and captions are divided into sections on Mars, Antarctic meteorites, ALH 84001 and its possible traces of life, and exploration of Mars and the universe. Most slides and captions can also be used independently. Terms defined in the glossary are underlined the first time they are mentioned in this booklet. The suggested reading portion of this slide set has been updated to include research published since the time of the first edition, and some of the captions have been updated to reflect the success of recent missions.

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and is the outermost of the ?terrestrial? (Earth-like, or rocky) planets. It is the second closest planet to Earth. With a diameter of 6788 kilometers, Mars is about half the size of the Earth. Its elliptical orbit, thin atmosphere, and lack of an ocean give it an extraordinarily wide range of surface temperatures. Near the equator, high temperatures can reach 22?C (72?F) in summer; at the south pole in the dead of winter, lows can be -125?C (-255?F).

The surface area of Mars is equivalent to the land area of Earth. Mars appears reddish because much of it is coated with iron oxide minerals (the material that forms rust on Earth). Its atmosphere, composed primarily of carbon dioxide, is very thin. Air pressure at the planet's surface is about one two-hundredth of the air pressure on Earth. As on Earth, clouds form and dissipate each day (one Mars day, called a ?sol,? is 24 hours and 37 minutes long), and the global atmospheric circulation is driven by seasonal changes in temperature. Occasionally, winds raise dust storms. These are usually short-lived and local, but can grow to global proportions (most frequently when Mars is closest to the Sun).

In 1976, the Viking 1 Orbiter took the first photographs of the Cydonia region of Mars, showing what appeared to be a humanoid face one mile long and 1,500 feet high. UFOlogists immediately jumped on the photos as prove of a previous or present intelligence. NASA quickly bashed these theories as simply a trick of light and shadow. The Cydonia region also contained what appeared to be several pyramid-like objects, which some researchers claim are not formed by natural occurrence. The strange loss of the Mars Observer as it made its way to the red planet in 1993 temporarily dealt a blow to any hopes of obtaining new, closer photos of this puzzling region of the planet. Some submitted that the craft was not lost, but that what it found was too controversial for public knowledge. Of course, there is no way to prove this contention. NASA was accused of knowing much more about Mars and its extraterrestrial connection than it would admit.

The subsequent refusal of NASA to land the Sojourner near the Cydonia area only furthered the contention of many that the space administration was deliberately leading its technology away from the controversial area. NASA's explanation was that there were other areas which were much more hospitable for a landing sight. With pressure from the general public being the main catalyst, NASA finally agreed to re-shoot the Cydonia area on a follow-up effort. Released on April 6, 1998, new pictures only added fuel to the fire. These "new" photos only deepened the mystery, leaving no "clear-cut" tag to stamp on the images. It seems that only a future manned mission, or closer, more accurate photography will clear the air. We must remember that here on our own planet there are many structures which are not clearly defined as natural, or man-made.

The present condition of the planet Mars is by no means unpleasant. It is a smaller planet than the Earth and more advanced in age. I do not mean that it is actually older in years, for the whole chain of worlds came into existence - not simultaneously indeed - but within a certain definite area of time. But being smaller it lives its life as a planet more quickly.It cooled more rapidly from the nebulous condition, and it has passed through its other stages with corresponding celerity. When humanity occupied it in the third round it was in much the same condition as is the Earth at the present time - that is to say, there was much more water than land on its surface.Nowit has passed into comparative old age, and the water surface is far less than that of the land.

Large areas of it are at present desert, covered with a bright orange sandwich gives the planet the peculiar hue by which we so readily recognise it. Like that of many of our own deserts, the soil is probably fertile enough if the great irrigation system were extended to it, as it no doubt would have been if humanity had remained upon it until now. The present population, consisting practically of members of the inner round, is but a small one, and they find plenty of room for themselves to live without great effort, in the equatorial lands, where the temperature is highest and there is no difficulty as to water. The great system of canals which has been observed by terrestrial astronomers was constructed by the second order of moon-men when they last occupiedthe planet, and its general scheme is to take advantage of the annual melting of enormous masses of ice at the outer fringe of the polar snow-caps. It has been observed that some of the canals are double, but the double line is only occasionally apparent; that is due to the fore-thought of the Martian engineers. The country is on the whole level, and they had great dread of inundations; and wherever they thought there was reason to fear too great an outrush of water under exceptional circumstances the second parallel canal was constructed to receive any possible overflow and carry it away safely. The actual canals themselves are not visible to terrestrial telescopes; what is seen is the belt of verdure which appears in a tract of country on each side of the canal only at the time when the water pours in. Just as Egypt exists only because of the Nile, so do large districts on......