2007-03-12 01:01:50 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Mars was first viewed by Galileo Galilei in 1609
2007-03-12 01:09:10 · answer #1 · answered by Victor 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Mars has no credited discoverer.
Like [Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn], Mars can easily be seen with the naked eye to be a wandering star (planet), so even the earliest civilizations knew they existed.
Because they knew the Sun and Moon also moved relative to background stars, they rightly guessed the wandering stars were more important than the fixed stars.
Knowing that the Sun and Moon affect life on Earth, they then wrongly assumed the wandering stars affected aspects of life as well - which is why astronomy and astrology grew together as sciences even up to as late as Newton's time.
2007-03-12 03:01:39 · answer #2 · answered by Stargazer 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mars was never "discovered" as it has always been clearly visible to the naked eye at night. Ancient people knew of it, along with Venus and Jupiter, as a "wandering star" - the original meaning of "planet" - as opposed to the constellations, which were fixed stars. They didn't, of course, know that it was an actual world.
2007-03-12 03:05:56 · answer #3 · answered by Daniel R 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Galileo first observed Mars through a telescope in the year 1610.
It was Christian Huygens who drew sketches of Mars, which for the first time were useful to astronomy (1659).
Through his telescopic observations, Huygens deduced that the rotation period of Mars was approximately 24 hours.
The polar icecaps of Mars were discovered in 1666 by an Italian astronomer Cassini.
2007-03-12 01:14:34 · answer #4 · answered by bambola1uk 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There is no record, as it was one of the Planos, or "wanderers", because the ancients noticed that, although most stars were fixed in relation to each other, certain ones moved across the sky. The term later became "Planets".
2007-03-12 03:07:33 · answer #5 · answered by CLICKHEREx 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Aristotle was first to view Mars, noting that, as it passed behind the moon, it was farther away than was originally believed. In 1609, Mars was viewed by Galileo, who was first to see it via telescope
2007-03-12 01:11:26 · answer #6 · answered by Jim 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
About 500,000 years ago, when humans first became smart enough to notice that some of the points of light in the night sky moved from night to night.
2007-03-12 03:32:12 · answer #7 · answered by morningfoxnorth 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The only modification I would make to Ken E's otherwise spot-on answer (above) would be to delete "possibly" and insert "almost certainly". Superb!
2007-03-12 11:30:57 · answer #8 · answered by Girly Brains 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Possibly the same person who first noticed the Moon. It is terribly obvious if you don't live in a large, light-polluted city.
2007-03-12 01:35:21 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
thousands of year ago INDIAN
astrologers discovered all the nine planets with MARS. ARYABHATT & VARAHMIHIR are someof them.
2007-03-12 01:22:53 · answer #10 · answered by vishwa s 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋