Landscapes of Mars

I don't know where in the world the name "Red Planet" came from, but Mars is not red. Anyone who has seen it through a telescope knows this. Anyone familiar with the rock (limonite) that it is made of knows this, and anyone who looks at the pictures that Phoenix is sending back knows this.
Mars is butterscotch yellow!
Any picture that makes Mars look red has been altered and you can tell from the color calibration bar that NASA puts on all of its landers.
Please please please stop calling it the red planet!

I have a podcast about this and other misconceptions on my wiki (free and advertisement free) at http://scienceinquirer.wikispaces.com.

You know, no one cares that its "butterscotch yellow". It was coined as red and will continue to stay that way.

So stop getting your panties in a bunch.

The naming Red Planet has stayed like a brand name. The same way we say "Can you give me a Kleenex?"
Even though the planet is not really red, I believe that it has been named that for a commercial reason. What would sell better :
LIFE ON RED PLANET
or
LIFE ON THE BUTTERSCOTCH-YELLOW PLANT

- DiGGY

I like the head line for the article “Could humans one day live here?” Are you kidding me? We’ve almost successfully destroyed our planet and are unable to take care of it, yet we want to inhabit another planet… I have a better headline: “Could humans repair planet earth?”

So therez is still smart ppl ^

They call it The Red Planet because before microscopes it was pretty much a red dot in the sky. So they called it The Red Planet, and then it just stuck.

I agree with QD1, but then again, if we keep going the way we are right now, we would definately need another place to live...
- DiGGY

We are a throw-away society, and this will not change because we are at the mercy of the masses. The 1% of us that care enough to inhabit the earth without destroying it can do nothing to stop this inevitable disaster. In less than 100 years, the earth will be a wasteland with uninhabitable oceans and toxic atmospheric gases. This will be an exponential decline, and we are just starting to realize the first stages of it. It is simply too late to fix it all now without severe government involvement, millions of volunteers, and a complete global reform of our social and industrial ways of life (yeah, dream on). So what is the plan? Let's find a new planet to destroy!

Here is another idea (just a starting point, really): Let's turn away from space for a decade or so (it will still be there later). All those trillions of dollars that would have gone into space research and exploration could be used to help clean up our waste here on earth and prevent looming industrial disasters. All those brilliant scientists currently trying to find past life on Mars and build new super rockets can put their genius minds to work on new methods for renewable energy and recycling. I think you get the point. I won't even get started on the subject of global military occupation and the never-ending arms race. Do you even know what the majority of your tax dollars are funding? We are allocating our resources in all the wrong places, and it is starting to catch up with us (did we learn nothing from the Romans?).

The US government has its priorities all wrong, and that is why it is a failing nation. I am frankly disgusted with our government and media, actually. I no longer want to be a US Citizen, and I am certainly not proud to be an American. Once I can afford to do so, I am moving my family out of the US. I will no longer feed this pig with my hard-earned income. Trust me, I have done my homework. There are much safer, happier, and more free places to enjoy life in this diverse and beautiful world (not to mention raise children!).

By the way, it is called the Red Planet because that is how it looks in the sky, to the naked eye. This is due to the fine layer of metallic dust (mainly Hematite) covering most of Mars' terrain. The farther away you are, the more red the planet appears. This took me 3 minutes to find out, thanks to a quick Google search. Just remember when you do research on the internet to check your sources because any moron can post stuff on the internet, as mhorton has so eloquently exemplified.

My favorite quote:
"A brilliant mind is always outnumbered. Unfortunately, majority rules." -Kyle Douglas Williams

All these Mars pics were taken in 2006, why has it taken so long to realease them and why have they been altered?

Whats the point in taking all these pics if they arent going to share the real ones with us?

QD1 has a good point, and so does wtf_popsci. However, no matter how well we repair the planet, we would eventually have to start killing people off to compensate for space on Earth (a bit harsh, just making a point). It may take a thousand years for us to overpopulate the planet it may take 10 million, but the truth is the population is going up, not down.

I am a strong believer that we are a form of parasite , that takes more than what we need to survive and say screw the rest. It may seem like an ignorant pov, but if you look at how we, vs other creatures on earth, treat the world and other organisms, you might agree.

Unless the human race is wiped out relatively soon, we will have no choice but to seek out new planets to feed off of.

JMO opinion without any scientific information to back it up, so please don't argue about what I think.

Expand and continue to prosper, you think you have nothing and yet there are people in the world without, you see the nature of one end of the spectum a little behind, the middle and one a little ahead. It gets better for everyone eventually.

Just get us OFF this planet so we can preserve its power and excellence rather then mess it up. It doesnt deserve that, let us take environmental procautions when creating forever places, on Mars. Fast fast fast now now now efficiency cmon people dammit. stop feinding the taxes and let us all take a load off.

-You fall somewhere in the Balanced Frequency of Nature. Someone Along the Indefinite Spectrum of Life.