-
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe makes very accurate calculations of the position of Mars looking with only his eyes.
-
Galileo Galilee is the first to use a telecscope to look at Mars. Telescopes had never before been used for astronomy.
-
Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens uses his own special telescopes to look at and draw Mars. He finds a dark spot and, by looking at where it is at certain times of day, figures that Mars has a 24 hour rotation period.
-
Giovanni Cassini observes Mars and figures out that the lenght of a day on Mars is 24 hours, 40 minutes.
-
Christiaan Huygens publishes Cosmotheros, which is one of the first works to discuss what a planet needs to support life and speculates on extraterrestrial life.
-
Mars is in opposition, closer to Earth than it would be again until 2003, causing panic.
-
Giancomo Miraldi observes white spots on Mars and determines that they are polar ice caps.
-
British atronomer William Herschel publishes a paper called "On the remarkable appearances at the polar regions on the planet Mars, the inclination of its axis, the position of its poles, and its spheroidal figure." In this paper he guesses the axial tilt to be 30 degrees, very close to it's actual tilt. He also incorrectly assumed that the darker areas on Mars were oceans.
-
The Moons of Mars are discovered by Asaph Hall, and named Phobos and Deimos after the horses of the god Mars' Greek counterpart, Ares. Phobos means "fear" and Deimos means "terror".
-
Wilhelm Beer and Johann von Maedler observe Mars and determine that the rotational period is 24 hours, 37 minutes, 22.6 seconds, which is very close to the currently accepted value of 24 hours, 37 minutes, 22.7 seconds.
-
Giovanni Schiaparelli uses the term "canali" to describe streaks on the surface of Mars. The word means "channels" but was misinterpreted to mean "canals" which made people think there must be life on Mars building canals.
-
Asaph Hall discovers Mars' moons and names then Phobos and Deimos, after the Greek god Ares' horses.
-
NASA sends Mariner 4, which flys past Mars and collects the first close-up images of another planet.
-
Mariner 9 is the first spacecraft to orbit Mars, functioning for nearly a year and revealed many parts of the surface of Mars that had not been expected- for example, large volcanoes, valleys, and ancient riverbeds.
-
Viking 1 and 2 are the first spacecrafts to land on Mars safely and return images of the surface,
-
The Mars Global Surveyor studied Mars for several Martian years and mapped the surface of Mars, it's weather conditions, and changes on the surface over several Martian years.
-
The Mars Science Laboratory carried the Curiosity Rover, and landed in Gale Crater on August 5, 2012. It is collecting rocks and soil samples and analyzing them for conditions that could have supported life.
