To date there have been 42 missions to Mars, with exactly half of them complete failures. Other than the Earth it is the most studied planet in the solar system, and for centuries it has been at the heart of wild speculation and groundbreaking scientific discoveries. Observations of Mars have not only revealed otherwise unknown secrets but also posed new and exciting questions, and it is for these reasons that it has become the most intriguing planetary body of our time. Take a look at the map above to see key geological points of interest as well as the landing and crash sites for several spacecraft.

This image of the surface of Mars was created by reconstructing data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter and observations by NASA’s Viking spacecraft.

1,500 BC

Egyptians refer to Mars as ‘Horus of the Hawk’, a god with the head of a hawk. They note its retrograde motion, when it moves backwards in its orbit relative to Earth

350 BC

Aristotle first proposes that Mars orbits at a further distance than the moon when he notes that the moon passes in front of Mars in his observations.

1609

Galileo Galilei uses a telescope to become the first person to directly observe Mars, but is later vilified by the Vatican for asserting that the planets orbit the Sun and not earth.

1666

Astronomer Giovanni Cassini calculates the length of a Martian day, notes the polar ice caps and even calculates its distance from Earth in his telescopic observations.

1840

Astronomers Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler study Mars through a 3.75-inch telescope and produce the first sketched Map of its surface.

The European Space Agency’s GOCE satellite (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) has just imaged the Earth’s gravity in HD. The colourful map, as can be seen above, traces the subtle but all pervasive influence the pull of gravity has across the globe and is referred to as a ‘geoid’ – a map which defines where the hypothetical level surface is on Earth. Scientists say the gathered data has numerous applications, specifically in climate studies as the geoid can help highlight how the massive mass of ocean water is moving heat around the planet.

Europe is currently at the forefront of space-based Earth Observation and is in the middle of a huge programme involving the launch of over 20 missions worth an estimated 8 billion euros.

Image courtesy of NASA

The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (or MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite captured this incredibly chilling image of Great Britain on 7 January as most areas experienced freezing temperatures of -10C on the coldest night of the winter so far. Isolated areas were even subjected to lows of -22C in the Scottish Highlands.

Snowfall followed by freezing temperatures left areas dangerously icy, resulting in widespread chaos on the roads. Schools across the nation were closed and many businesses sent staff home. The emergency services, including roadside assistance, were inundated with incidents.

One possible reason for the severely cold conditions across the Northern Hemisphere this last month is an extreme negative phase of Arctic Oscillation (AO). AO refers to a state of seesawing atmospheric pressure over the Arctic. The negative phase of AO causes high pressure over the polar region and low pressure at mid-latitudes.

MODIS images the entire Earth every one to two days. The grey areas against the white land surface on the map are actually the cities of Manchester, Birmingham and London.