Depictions of Martians Through Time

The red planet has always held a type of sway over Earth. Its mystical red glow attracted amateur stargazers who could see the shimmering rogue color when Mars was close enough to show its face in the night sky, the first astronomers with their weakly powered telescopes, science fiction writers, and astronomers in addition to astronauts of the modern age. While even early astronomers knew that Venus was technically closer to Earth in terms of mere miles between, Mars still always attracted more attention. We now know that Mars is the more likely candidate for exploration (and even very ancient single celled life forms) since Venus runs at roughly smoldering 1600 degrees Fahrenheit (900 degrees Celsius) and has enough pressure from its dense gas filled atmosphere and clouds to crush most of our spacecraft that could get us there while Mars has significantly low air pressure and is just very cold like the rest of space since temperature goes between -140 degrees Fahrenheit (-100 degrees Celsius) and 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). Before we sent probes to actually investigate the surface of the planet—finding fossil evidence of microorganisms—mankind always thought that if there was life out there in the vastness of the universe then Mars would be a decent place to start looking. This thought made the imaginations and theorizing brains of humans go wild with anticipation about someday encountering Martians.