Important notices
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Curiosity is the mother of knowledge. From the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus to the formulation of the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin after the travel to Galapagos Archipelago, the spirit of exploration continues to push forward the frontier of knowledge.
The latest sky show "Mars Odyssey" takes the audience to another journey of exploration, to unveil the mystery of Mars.
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With great variations in brightness, Mars has never failed to attract attention from the public or even among experts. A century ago, astronomers believed that they saw canals on Mars through telescopes. This led to the speculation of existence of intelligent life or even fears of attacks from Mars.
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Mars
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Gullies photographed by Mars Global Surveyor indicate that liquid water may be present on the Martian surface recently.
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Since 1965, NASA has launched a number of unmanned space probes to fly to or even land on Mars. Though these probes revealed that there were no artificial canals on Mars, they found signs of recent liquid water on the subsurface of Mars. And water holds the promise of life.
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To further study the history of water on Mars, NASA launched two Mars Exploration Rovers in June and July 2003 respectively. The rovers are expected to land in January 2004.
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NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers will search for answers about the history of water on Mars.
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Mars Express launched by European Space Agency in 2003 would search for water and possible evidence of past or present life on Mars.
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On the other hand, European Space Agency launched the Mars Express in June 2003. Its lander is expected to land in December 2003 and drill and core soil samples for analysis. Hopefully, it will find out whether life exists on Mars. |
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In the 19th century, some astronomers observed straight
lines crisscrossing the surface of Mars, which were
believed to be river channels or canals.
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Mars Global Surveyor studies the entire surface,
atmosphere and the interior of Mars.
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In 1976, Viking Orbiter 1 photographed a region of buttes and mesas with a face-like hill,
which some people argued that the face-like hill is artificially shaped.
Later,
Mars Global Surveyor revealed the real face of "Face on Mars" with ultra-high resolution images.
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The Beagle 2 Lander of Mars Express is equipped with a Hong Kong designed and produced space tool - the Mars Rock Corer for retrieval of samples from inside of rocks.
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Photo courtesy: NASA, ESA
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