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Polar ice cap
Christiaan Huygen observed a bright spot on Mars’ surface which was later discovered as a polar ice cap. Therefore, it was discovered by him. In sixteen centuries it was known that Mars has water on its surface. -
Observation of water in the atmosphere
A group of scientists observed water over Mars’s atmosphere based on spectrographic analysis. -
Mariner 4
On this date humans made their best contact with Mars when a spacecraft, Mariner 4, landed from earth. Mariner 4 took the first photo of Mars’ surface. Earth finally got to see how Mars looks like. -
Viking 1
Viking 1 was the first American spacecraft to land on Mars’ surface. Viking 1 and its twin, Viking 2, took back images and weather data and did the experiments for six years, but the mission had been only planned for 90 days. Scientists discovered that Mars had different types of rocks. -
Mariner 9
Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit a planet. It entered the orbit of Mars. Marin 9 took more than 7 000 pictures of Mars’ surface. -
Meteorites found on Mars
A group of scientists found meteorites from Mars near Antarctica. They contained fossils from Mars. However, these fossils were the result of some natural process and were not the remains of life on Mars. -
Sojourner
A tiny robotic rover called Sojourner was released on Mars by the Mars Pathfinder. This provided an economical way for scientists for collecting useful information. -
Rover
NASA‘s Opportunity Rover found a meteorite on Mars’ surface. This was made of iron and nickel. This was the first time when meteorite was discovered on a planet other than the Moon. -
Flowing liquid water
Mars’ reconnaissance orbiter from NASA captured some images to show flowing liquid water on Mars’ surface. However, the source of this water could not be identified. -
inSight lander
NASA’s InSight lander was launched to study heat flow from the deep interior of Mars. The InSight lander landed successfully on Mars’ surface.
