Misplaced Pages

#246753

119-455: Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs . The first Barsoom tale was serialized as Under the Moons of Mars in pulp magazine The All-Story from February to July 1912 and published compiled as a novel as A Princess of Mars in 1917. It features John Carter , a late-19th-century American Confederate veteran who

238-422: A planet . There, all are captured by the sun-worshipping Tarids, white-skinned and blue-haired natives of Thuria (which they call Ladan) whose mental powers render them invisible to the spacefarers. To win freedom from their jeweled prison, the antagonists must join forces with each other, aided by another captive, the one-eyed and two-mouthed chameleon -like "cat-man" Umka. Amid betrayal and heroic sacrifice,

357-659: A "treasure" consisting of pretty stones, sea shells , etc. In addition to the naturally occurring races of Barsoom, Burroughs described the Hormads, artificial men created by the scientist Ras Thavas as slaves, workers, warriors, etc. in giant vats at his laboratory in the Toonolian Marsh in Synthetic Men of Mars and "John Carter and the Giant of Mars". Although the Hormads were generally recognizable as humanoid,

476-489: A classical albedo feature it contains. In April 2023, The New York Times reported an updated global map of Mars based on images from the Hope spacecraft . A related, but much more detailed, global Mars map was released by NASA on 16 April 2023. The vast upland region Tharsis contains several massive volcanoes, which include the shield volcano Olympus Mons . The edifice is over 600 km (370 mi) wide. Because

595-672: A code of honor and have a strong sense of fairness. Their culture is governed by law and is technologically advanced. They are capable of love and have families. The Green Martians are 15 feet (4.6 m) tall (males) and 12 feet (3.7 m) tall (females), have two arms, two legs and two intermediary limbs that can be used as either arms or legs at will. Their eyes are mounted at the side of their heads and can move independently of each other in order to see in two directions at once. They are nomadic, warlike and barbaric, do not form families, have little concept of friendship or love and enjoy inflicting torture upon their victims. Their social structure

714-446: A diameter of 6,779 km (4,212 mi). In terms of orbital motion, a Martian solar day ( sol ) is equal to 24.6 hours, and a Martian solar year is equal to 1.88 Earth years (687 Earth days). Mars has two natural satellites that are small and irregular in shape: Phobos and Deimos . The relatively flat plains in northern parts of Mars strongly contrast with the cratered terrain in southern highlands – this terrain observation

833-586: A freelance bravo, cultivating small-time criminal Rapas the Ulsio and attempting to penetrate the ranks of the Guild . Simultaneously, Carter becomes embroiled in the affairs of two rival scientists, Fal Sivas and Gar Nal, who are competing against each other to create a viable " synthetic brain "-controlled spacecraft. Complications ensue as the two threads of the plot become entangled, and the Guild, in its own attempt at

952-422: A global magnetic field, the types and distribution of auroras there differ from those on Earth; rather than being mostly restricted to polar regions as is the case on Earth, a Martian aurora can encompass the planet. In September 2017, NASA reported radiation levels on the surface of the planet Mars were temporarily doubled , and were associated with an aurora 25 times brighter than any observed earlier, due to

1071-488: A high ratio of deuterium in Gale Crater , though not significantly high enough to suggest the former presence of an ocean. Other scientists caution that these results have not been confirmed, and point out that Martian climate models have not yet shown that the planet was warm enough in the past to support bodies of liquid water. Near the northern polar cap is the 81.4 kilometres (50.6 mi) wide Korolev Crater , which

1190-490: A low of 30  Pa (0.0044  psi ) on Olympus Mons to over 1,155 Pa (0.1675 psi) in Hellas Planitia , with a mean pressure at the surface level of 600 Pa (0.087 psi). The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to that found 35 kilometres (22 mi) above Earth's surface. The resulting mean surface pressure is only 0.6% of Earth's 101.3 kPa (14.69 psi). The scale height of

1309-442: A massive, and unexpected, solar storm in the middle of the month. Mars has seasons, alternating between its northern and southern hemispheres, similar to on Earth. Additionally the orbit of Mars has, compared to Earth's, a large eccentricity and approaches perihelion when it is summer in its southern hemisphere and winter in its northern, and aphelion when it is winter in its southern hemisphere and summer in its northern. As

SECTION 10

#1732787562247

1428-542: A minimum thickness of 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) in Isidis Planitia , and a maximum thickness of 117 kilometres (73 mi) in the southern Tharsis plateau. For comparison, Earth's crust averages 27.3 ± 4.8 km in thickness. The most abundant elements in the Martian crust are silicon , oxygen , iron , magnesium , aluminium , calcium , and potassium . Mars is confirmed to be seismically active; in 2019 it

1547-429: A number of elements with westerns in that they feature desert landscapes, women taken captive and a final confrontation with the antagonist. Burroughs' Barsoom stories are considered seminal planetary romances. While examples existed prior to the publication of his works, they are the principal influence on the many works of this type that followed. His style of planetary romance has ceased to be written and published in

1666-405: A preemptive strike against Carter, kidnaps his wife, the princess Dejah Thoris of Helium. For the first time the action of the series goes off-planet, as Ur Jan and Gar Nal flee with Dejah to the Martian moon Thuria ( Phobos ) in one of the spacecraft, pursued by Carter and his allies Jat Or and Zanda in the other. The passage shrinks the travelers down until to them the tiny moon is the size of

1785-519: A private war he and his picked followers have been waging against the resurgent Guild of Assassins, led by Ur Jan. Hoping to cut off the threat at the root, he travels undercover to the Assassins ' base, the restive city of Zodanga, still smarting from its defeat and sack by the Empire of Helium and the horde of Tharks in A Princess of Mars . There Carter passes himself off in the underworld as Vandor,

1904-473: A record of erosion caused by the catastrophic release of water from subsurface aquifers, though some of these structures have been hypothesized to result from the action of glaciers or lava. One of the larger examples, Ma'adim Vallis , is 700 kilometres (430 mi) long, much greater than the Grand Canyon, with a width of 20 kilometres (12 mi) and a depth of 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in places. It

2023-547: A record of impacts from that era, whereas much of the remaining surface is probably underlain by immense impact basins caused by those events. However, more recent modeling has disputed the existence of the Late Heavy Bombardment. There is evidence of an enormous impact basin in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, spanning 10,600 by 8,500 kilometres (6,600 by 5,300 mi), or roughly four times

2142-460: A result, the seasons in its southern hemisphere are more extreme and the seasons in its northern are milder than would otherwise be the case. The summer temperatures in the south can be warmer than the equivalent summer temperatures in the north by up to 30 °C (54 °F). Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about −110 °C (−166 °F) to highs of up to 35 °C (95 °F) in equatorial summer. The wide range in temperatures

2261-617: A seafaring race, but when the oceans began to dry up they began to cooperate with the Yellow and Black Martians to breed the Red Martians, foreseeing the need for hardy stock to cope with the emerging harsher environment. They became decadent and 'overcivilized'. At the beginning of the series they are believed to be extinct, but three remaining populations - the Orovars, Therns and Lotharians – are still living in secret and are discovered as

2380-471: A small crater (later called Airy-0 ), located in the Sinus Meridiani ("Middle Bay" or "Meridian Bay"), was chosen by Merton E. Davies , Harold Masursky , and Gérard de Vaucouleurs for the definition of 0.0° longitude to coincide with the original selection. Because Mars has no oceans, and hence no " sea level ", a zero-elevation surface had to be selected as a reference level; this is called

2499-535: A storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the entire planet. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, and have been shown to increase global temperature. Seasons also produce dry ice covering polar ice caps . Large areas of the polar regions of Mars While Mars contains water in larger amounts , most of it is dust covered water ice at the Martian polar ice caps . The volume of water ice in

SECTION 20

#1732787562247

2618-491: A very thick lithosphere compared to Earth. Below this the mantle gradually becomes more ductile, and the seismic wave velocity starts to grow again. The Martian mantle does not appear to have a thermally insulating layer analogous to Earth's lower mantle ; instead, below 1050 km in depth, it becomes mineralogically similar to Earth's transition zone . At the bottom of the mantle lies a basal liquid silicate layer approximately 150–180 km thick. Mars's iron and nickel core

2737-501: A worldwide system of canals , controlled by quarreling city-states at the junctures thereof. The idea of Martian "canals" stems from telescopic observations by 19th century astronomers who, beginning with Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877, believed they saw networks of lines on the planet. Schiaparelli called them canali , meaning "channels" but mistranslated in English as "canals". During the time Burroughs wrote his first Barsoom stories,

2856-452: Is Syrtis Major Planum . The permanent northern polar ice cap is named Planum Boreum . The southern cap is called Planum Australe . Mars's equator is defined by its rotation, but the location of its Prime Meridian was specified, as was Earth's (at Greenwich ), by choice of an arbitrary point; Mädler and Beer selected a line for their first maps of Mars in 1830. After the spacecraft Mariner 9 provided extensive imagery of Mars in 1972,

2975-411: Is 24 hours and 37 minutes long. (Burroughs presumably derived this from the figures published by Lowell, but erroneously substituted the number of 24-hour Earth days in the Martian year, rather than the number of 24.6-hour Martian days , which is only 669.) The days are hot (again known to be false) and the nights are cold, and there appears to be little variation in climate across the planet except at

3094-406: Is a light albedo feature clearly visible from Earth. There are other notable impact features, such as Argyre , which is around 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) in diameter, and Isidis , which is around 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) in diameter. Due to the smaller mass and size of Mars, the probability of an object colliding with the planet is about half that of Earth. Mars is located closer to

3213-619: Is also introduced as a minor character in The Gods of Mars , as is Thuvia. Three other books focus on their descendants: Carthoris, in Thuvia, Maid of Mars , his sister, Tara of Helium, in The Chessmen of Mars , and Tara's daughter, Llana of Gathol, in Llana of Gathol . Ulysses Paxton , another Earth man transported to Mars, is the focus of The Master Mind of Mars , and the rest of

3332-467: Is an unusual exception from the typical ruthless Green Martian, due to having known the love of his own mate and daughter. In the novels, the Green Martians are often referred to by the names of their hordes, which in turn take their names from the abandoned cities they inhabit. Thus the followers of Tars Tarkas, based in the ruined ancient city of Thark, are known as " Tharks ". Other hordes bear

3451-432: Is approximately half the diameter of Earth, with a surface area only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land. Mars is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of Earth's mass , resulting in about 38% of Earth's surface gravity . Mars is the only presently known example of a desert planet , a rocky planet with a surface akin to that of Earth's hot deserts . The red-orange appearance of

3570-766: Is completely molten, with no solid inner core. It is around half of Mars's radius, approximately 1650–1675 km, and is enriched in light elements such as sulfur , oxygen, carbon , and hydrogen . Mars is a terrestrial planet with a surface that consists of minerals containing silicon and oxygen, metals , and other elements that typically make up rock . The Martian surface is primarily composed of tholeiitic basalt , although parts are more silica -rich than typical basalt and may be similar to andesitic rocks on Earth, or silica glass. Regions of low albedo suggest concentrations of plagioclase feldspar , with northern low albedo regions displaying higher than normal concentrations of sheet silicates and high-silicon glass. Parts of

3689-579: Is composed of the Martian name for planet, "soom", and the Martian word for eight, "bar". This reflects counting Mars as the eighth body in the inner solar system, by counting not just planets, but the Sun and the satellites of Earth and of Mars. A Princess of Mars , the first novel in the Barsoom series, with its sequels The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars , form a trilogy centered upon protagonist John Carter and damsel in distress Dejah Thoris . John Carter's and Dejah Thoris's son Carthoris

Barsoom - Misplaced Pages Continue

3808-619: Is composed of two novellas. Most are first-person narratives. John Carter narrates A Princess of Mars , The Gods of Mars , The Warlord of Mars , Swords of Mars , the four novellas in Llana of Gathol , and "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" in John Carter of Mars . Ulysses Paxton narrates one, The Master Mind of Mars . Martian guardsman Vor Daj narrates Synthetic Men of Mars , and Martian navy officer Tan Hadron narrates A Fighting Man of Mars . Two other novels, Thuvia, Maid of Mars and The Chessmen of Mars , are written in

3927-480: Is described as Burroughs' great-uncle. Collectively, this series of novels has been referred to as the Martian Series . Burroughs frequently invented words of the languages spoken by the people in his novels, and used these extensively in the narrative. In Thuvia, Maid of Mars he included a glossary of Barsoomian words used in the first four novels. The word "Barsoom", the native Martian word for Mars,

4046-429: Is divided into two kinds of areas, with differing albedo. The paler plains covered with dust and sand rich in reddish iron oxides were once thought of as Martian "continents" and given names like Arabia Terra ( land of Arabia ) or Amazonis Planitia ( Amazonian plain ). The dark features were thought to be seas, hence their names Mare Erythraeum , Mare Sirenum and Aurorae Sinus . The largest dark feature seen from Earth

4165-487: Is due to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat, the low atmospheric pressure (about 1% that of the atmosphere of Earth ), and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil. The planet is 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth, resulting in just 43% of the amount of sunlight. Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System, reaching speeds of over 160 km/h (100 mph). These can vary from

4284-426: Is highly communal and rigidly hierarchical, consisting of various levels of chiefs, with the highest office of Jeddak obtained by mortal combat. The Green Men are primitive, intellectually unadvanced, do not have any kind of art and are without a written language. While they manufacture edged weapons, any advanced technology they possess, such as 'radium pistols', is stolen from raids upon the Red Martians. They inhabit

4403-437: Is known as the Martian dichotomy . Mars hosts many enormous extinct volcanoes (the tallest is Olympus Mons , 21.9 km or 13.6 mi tall) and one of the largest canyons in the Solar System ( Valles Marineris , 4,000 km or 2,500 mi long). Geologically , the planet is fairly active with marsquakes trembling underneath the ground, dust devils sweeping across the landscape, and cirrus clouds . Carbon dioxide

4522-401: Is mysteriously transported from Earth to the dying world of Mars where he meets and romances the beautiful Martian princess Dejah Thoris . Ten sequels followed over the next three decades, further extending his vision of Barsoom and adding other characters. The Barsoom series, particularly the first novel, is considered a major influence on early science fiction . Burroughs began writing

4641-608: Is no such thing. They frequently raid the White Martian Therns, who maintain the false Martian religion, carrying off people as slaves. John Carter defeats their navy in The Gods of Mars . The Chessmen of Mars introduces the Kaldanes of the region Bantoom , whose form is almost all head but for six spiderlike legs and a pair of chelae , and whose racial goal is to evolve even further towards pure intellect and away from bodily existence. In order to function in

4760-448: Is striking: northern plains flattened by lava flows contrast with the southern highlands, pitted and cratered by ancient impacts. It is possible that, four billion years ago, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars was struck by an object one-tenth to two-thirds the size of Earth's Moon . If this is the case, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars would be the site of an impact crater 10,600 by 8,500 kilometres (6,600 by 5,300 mi) in size, or roughly

4879-541: Is substantially present in Mars's polar ice caps and thin atmosphere . During a year, there are large surface temperature swings on the surface between −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) to 5.7 °C (42.3 °F) similar to Earth's seasons , as both planets have significant axial tilt . Mars was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago. During the Noachian period (4.5 to 3.5 billion years ago), Mars's surface

Barsoom - Misplaced Pages Continue

4998-483: Is the "directional compass"; this may be believed to be the precursor to the now-common " global positioning system ", or GPS for short. The Red Martians have flying machines, both civilian transports and fleets of heavily armed war craft. These stay aloft through some form of anti-gravity , which Burroughs explains as relating to the rays of the Sun. Fliers travel at approximately 166.1 miles per hour (267.3 km/h) (450 Martian Haads per hour). Mars Mars

5117-643: Is the fourth planet from the Sun . The surface of Mars is orange-red because it is covered in iron(III) oxide dust, giving it the nickname " the Red Planet ". Mars is among the brightest objects in Earth's sky , and its high-contrast albedo features have made it a common subject for telescope viewing. It is classified as a terrestrial planet and is the second smallest of the Solar System 's planets with

5236-577: Is the right thing to do. Qualities of compassion, loyalty, and bravery are celebrated, while callousness, deception, and cowardice are deprecated. Typically the novels include descriptions of aspects of the Martian world such as the architecture, and the presence of desolate landscapes punctuated by abandoned cities, technological achievements, advanced medicine, cultural elements such as religious practices and eating habits, breeding practices, and methods of population control. Many lost cities and civilizations and journeys into forgotten underworlds appear across

5355-606: Is thought to have been carved by flowing water early in Mars's history. The youngest of these channels is thought to have formed only a few million years ago. Elsewhere, particularly on the oldest areas of the Martian surface, finer-scale, dendritic networks of valleys are spread across significant proportions of the landscape. Features of these valleys and their distribution strongly imply that they were carved by runoff resulting from precipitation in early Mars history. Subsurface water flow and groundwater sapping may play important subsidiary roles in some networks, but precipitation

5474-550: The areoid of Mars, analogous to the terrestrial geoid . Zero altitude was defined by the height at which there is 610.5  Pa (6.105  mbar ) of atmospheric pressure. This pressure corresponds to the triple point of water, and it is about 0.6% of the sea level surface pressure on Earth (0.006 atm). For mapping purposes, the United States Geological Survey divides the surface of Mars into thirty cartographic quadrangles , each named for

5593-540: The Mars Express orbiter found to be filled with approximately 2,200 cubic kilometres (530 cu mi) of water ice. Swords of Mars Swords of Mars begins as a cloak and dagger thriller and ends as an interplanetary odyssey. In this novel John Carter , transplanted Earthman, returns to his status of protagonist and first-person narrator for the first time since the third Martian novel, The Warlord of Mars . Carter relates an adventure commencing with

5712-656: The Yellowknife Bay area in the Glenelg terrain. In September 2015, NASA announced that they had found strong evidence of hydrated brine flows in recurring slope lineae , based on spectrometer readings of the darkened areas of slopes. These streaks flow downhill in Martian summer, when the temperature is above −23 °C, and freeze at lower temperatures. These observations supported earlier hypotheses, based on timing of formation and their rate of growth, that these dark streaks resulted from water flowing just below

5831-415: The asteroid belt , so it has an increased chance of being struck by materials from that source. Mars is more likely to be struck by short-period comets , i.e. , those that lie within the orbit of Jupiter . Martian craters can have a morphology that suggests the ground became wet after the meteor impact. The large canyon, Valles Marineris (Latin for " Mariner Valleys", also known as Agathodaemon in

5950-402: The orbital inclination of Deimos (a small moon of Mars), that Mars may once have had a ring system 3.5 billion years to 4 billion years ago. This ring system may have been formed from a moon, 20 times more massive than Phobos , orbiting Mars billions of years ago; and Phobos would be a remnant of that ring. The geological history of Mars can be split into many periods, but

6069-562: The third person , as is "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" in John Carter of Mars . Beginning with A Princess of Mars , Burroughs established a practice which continued in the four sequels of introducing the novel as if a factual account passed on to him personally, wherein John Carter appears as an avuncular figure known to his family for years. The same device appears in several sequels: The Gods of Mars ; The Chessmen of Mars ; Swords of Mars ; and Llana of Gathol . All

SECTION 50

#1732787562247

6188-817: The Barsoom books in the second half of 1911 and produced one volume a year between 1911 and 1914; seven more were produced between 1921 and 1941. The first Barsoom tale was serialized in The All-Story magazine as Under the Moons of Mars (1911), and then published in hardcover as the complete novel A Princess of Mars (1917). The final Barsoom tale was a novella, Skeleton Men of Jupiter , published in Amazing Stories in February 1943. The novel editions of A Princess of Mars , The Gods of Mars and Llana of Gathol contain newly written forewords describing Edgar Rice Burroughs' interactions with John Carter, who

6307-455: The Barsoom series are implacably evil or are rulers or despots of major empires or of hidden fiefdoms. They are usually hated by their subjects and possess a voracious sexual appetite, usually directed towards the heroine. The pattern is established by Tharkian Jeddak Tal Hajus in the first novel, A Princess of Mars . Further examples include Salensus Oll of The Warlord of Mars , Nutus of Dusar in Thuvia, Maid of Mars , and Ul Vas, Jeddak of

6426-425: The Barsoom tales were published under the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs, except Under the Moons of Mars , the first publication of A Princess of Mars , which was published under the pseudonym "Norman Bean". Burroughs had actually typed "Normal Bean" (meaning not insane ) on his submitted manuscript; but his publisher's typesetter changed it to "Norman". The first novella in John Carter of Mars , "John Carter and

6545-604: The Black Men of Mars in an analogous deception to that the Therns practice on other Martians. They are also the repeated target of raids by the Black Martians to capture their females as slaves. They are white-skinned (of a skin tone close enough to human Caucasians that John Carter was able to easily pose as one) and the males are bald but wear blond wigs. Legend suggests that the Black Martians are inhabitants of one of

6664-591: The Giant of Mars", is thought to have been penned by Burroughs' son John "Jack" Coleman Burroughs, although allegedly revised by his father. It was recognized by fans, upon publication, as unlikely of being Burroughs' work, as the writing is of a juvenile quality compared with that of Burroughs' other stories. The stories are science fantasy , belonging to the subgenre planetary romance , which has strong elements of both science fiction and fantasy . Planetary romance stories are similar to sword and sorcery tales, but include scientific aspects. They mostly take place on

6783-473: The Green Martians are much taller, have four arms, tusks, and antennae like ears. The traditional Martian lifespan of 1,000 is based on the customary pilgrimage down the River Iss, which is taken by virtually all Martians by that age, or those who feel tired of their long lives and expect to find a paradise at the end of their journey. None return from this pilgrimage, because it leads to almost certain death at

6902-574: The Kaldane merely climbs upon another as an earthling might change a horse. A lesser people of Barsoom are the Kangaroo Men of Gooli, so called due to their large, kangaroo -like tails, ability to hop large distances and the rearing of their eggs in pouches. They are presented as a race of boastful, cowardly individuals. Their moral character is not highly developed; they are devout cowards and petty thieves, who value (aside from their lives) only

7021-478: The Martian ionosphere , lowering the atmospheric density by stripping away atoms from the outer layer. Both Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express have detected ionized atmospheric particles trailing off into space behind Mars, and this atmospheric loss is being studied by the MAVEN orbiter. Compared to Earth, the atmosphere of Mars is quite rarefied. Atmospheric pressure on the surface today ranges from

7140-538: The Martian sky a tawny color when seen from the surface. It may take on a pink hue due to iron oxide particles suspended in it. The concentration of methane in the Martian atmosphere fluctuates from about 0.24 ppb during the northern winter to about 0.65 ppb during the summer. Estimates of its lifetime range from 0.6 to 4 years, so its presence indicates that an active source of the gas must be present. Methane could be produced by non-biological process such as serpentinization involving water, carbon dioxide, and

7259-415: The Martian surface is caused by ferric oxide , or rust . It can look like butterscotch ; other common surface colors include golden, brown, tan, and greenish, depending on the minerals present. Like Earth, Mars is differentiated into a dense metallic core overlaid by less dense rocky layers. The outermost layer is the crust, which is on average about 42–56 kilometres (26–35 mi) thick, with

SECTION 60

#1732787562247

7378-420: The Martian surface. Mars is an attractive target for future human exploration missions , though in the 2020s no such mission is planned. Scientists have theorized that during the Solar System's formation , Mars was created as the result of a random process of run-away accretion of material from the protoplanetary disk that orbited the Sun. Mars has many distinctive chemical features caused by its position in

7497-593: The Moon, Johann Heinrich von Mädler and Wilhelm Beer were the first areographers. They began by establishing that most of Mars's surface features were permanent and by more precisely determining the planet's rotation period. In 1840, Mädler combined ten years of observations and drew the first map of Mars. Features on Mars are named from a variety of sources. Albedo features are named for classical mythology. Craters larger than roughly 50 km are named for deceased scientists and writers and others who have contributed to

7616-412: The Solar System. Elements with comparatively low boiling points, such as chlorine , phosphorus , and sulfur , are much more common on Mars than on Earth; these elements were probably pushed outward by the young Sun's energetic solar wind . After the formation of the planets, the inner Solar System may have been subjected to the so-called Late Heavy Bombardment . About 60% of the surface of Mars shows

7735-509: The Tarids in Swords of Mars . While Burroughs' Barsoom tales never aspired to anything other than escapism , his vision of Mars was loosely inspired by astronomical speculation of the time, especially that of Percival Lowell , that saw the planet as a formerly Earthlike world now becoming less hospitable to life due to its advanced age. Living on an aging planet, with dwindling resources,

7854-496: The Therns to cannibalize, only excepting those whom the directing Therns choose instead to enslave. They consider themselves a unique creation, different from other Martians. They maintain the Martian religion through a network of collaborators and spies across the planet. When they reach the age of 1000 years they make a pilgrimage to the Temple of Issus, unaware that they have been manipulated into doing so in order to be slaughtered by

7973-404: The ancient ruined cities left behind by civilizations which lived on Barsoom during a more advanced and hospitable era in the planet's history. They apparently arose from a biological experiment which went awry and as with all other Martians, they are an egg-laying species, concealing their eggs in incubators until hatching. Tars Tarkas , who befriends John Carter when he first arrives on Barsoom,

8092-462: The area of Europe, Asia, and Australia combined, surpassing Utopia Planitia and the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin as the largest impact crater in the Solar System. Mars is scarred by a number of impact craters: a total of 43,000 observed craters with a diameter of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) or greater have been found. The largest exposed crater is Hellas , which is 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) wide and 7,000 metres (23,000 ft) deep, and

8211-419: The atmosphere is about 10.8 kilometres (6.7 mi), which is higher than Earth's 6 kilometres (3.7 mi), because the surface gravity of Mars is only about 38% of Earth's. The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 96% carbon dioxide , 1.93% argon and 1.89% nitrogen along with traces of oxygen and water. The atmosphere is quite dusty, containing particulates about 1.5 μm in diameter which give

8330-406: The atmosphere is small, but enough to produce larger clouds of water ice and different cases of snow and frost , often mixed with snow of carbon dioxide dry ice . Landforms visible on Mars strongly suggest that liquid water has existed on the planet's surface. Huge linear swathes of scoured ground, known as outflow channels , cut across the surface in about 25 places. These are thought to be

8449-466: The books focus on John Carter's later adventures ( Swords of Mars and John Carter of Mars ), or on native Martian characters ( A Fighting Man of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars ). Most of the Barsoom books are novels, but two are collections of shorter works: Llana of Gathol has four linked novelettes, originally published in Amazing Stories during 1941, and John Carter of Mars

8568-407: The books progress. The Lotharians are a remnant population of the original White Martians, which appear only in Thuvia, Maid of Mars . There are only 1000 of them remaining, all of them male. They are skilled in telepathy, able to project images that can kill, or provide sustenance. They live a reclusive existence in a remote area of Barsoom, debating philosophy amongst themselves. Descendants of

8687-467: The broken fragments of "Tintina" rock and "Sutton Inlier" rock as well as in veins and nodules in other rocks like "Knorr" rock and "Wernicke" rock . Analysis using the rover's DAN instrument provided evidence of subsurface water, amounting to as much as 4% water content, down to a depth of 60 centimetres (24 in), during the rover's traverse from the Bradbury Landing site to

8806-457: The cultures are dynasties or theocracies. The Red Martians are the dominant culture on Barsoom. They are organized into a system of imperial city-states including Helium, Ptarth, and Zodanga, controlling the planetary canal system, as well as other more-isolated city-states in the hinterlands. The Red Martians are the interbred descendants of the ancient Yellow Martians, White Martians and Black Martians, remnants of which exist in isolated areas of

8925-458: The edges of boulders and other obstacles in their path. The commonly accepted hypotheses include that they are dark underlying layers of soil revealed after avalanches of bright dust or dust devils . Several other explanations have been put forward, including those that involve water or even the growth of organisms. Environmental radiation levels on the surface are on average 0.64 millisieverts of radiation per day, and significantly less than

9044-572: The entire planet, but a variety of writing systems. All Martians are telepathic among one another, and also with domestic animals. Other telepathic abilities are demonstrated across the books. The Lotharians in Thuvia, Maid of Mars , are able to project images of warfare that can kill by suggestion. In The Warlord of Mars , the nations are described as bellicose and self-sufficient; but in The Gods of Mars inter-city state merchants are mentioned, and in Thuvia, Maid of Mars , towering staging posts for inter-city liners are also described. Most of

9163-429: The flanks of the volcano Arsia Mons . The caves, named after loved ones of their discoverers, are collectively known as the "seven sisters". Cave entrances measure from 100 to 252 metres (328 to 827 ft) wide and they are estimated to be at least 73 to 96 metres (240 to 315 ft) deep. Because light does not reach the floor of most of the caves, they may extend much deeper than these lower estimates and widen below

9282-493: The following are the three primary periods: Geological activity is still taking place on Mars. The Athabasca Valles is home to sheet-like lava flows created about 200 million years ago. Water flows in the grabens called the Cerberus Fossae occurred less than 20 million years ago, indicating equally recent volcanic intrusions. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured images of avalanches. Mars

9401-402: The hands of ferocious creatures. While the Martian females are egg-laying, Martians have inexplicably mammalian characteristics such as a navel and breasts. While they have skins of various colors, and their bodies differ in some cases from traditional humans, they are very similar to varieties of Earth humans and there is little examination of difference. There is only one spoken language across

9520-415: The hero; who himself fights a variety of enemies and deposes petty rulers of severely repressed populations, usually with the assistance of a native. The world of Barsoom is morally unambiguous: characters are either good or evil; there is no sense of moral relativity. A sense of honor transcends race or political affiliation, and characters fight alongside one another and against their adversaries because it

9639-554: The inhabitants of Barsoom have become hardened and warlike, fighting one another to survive. Once a wet world with continents and oceans, Barsoom's seas gradually dried up, leaving it a dry planet of highlands interspersed with moss-covered dead sea bottoms. Abandoned cities line the former coasts. The last remnants of the former bodies of water are the Great Toonolian Marshes and the antarctic Lost Sea of Korus. Barsoomians distribute their scarce water supplies via

9758-436: The lander showed that the Martian soil has a basic pH of 7.7, and contains 0.6% perchlorate by weight, concentrations that are toxic to humans . Streaks are common across Mars and new ones appear frequently on steep slopes of craters, troughs, and valleys. The streaks are dark at first and get lighter with age. The streaks can start in a tiny area, then spread out for hundreds of metres. They have been seen to follow

9877-558: The mainstream, though his books remain in print. Like most of Burroughs' fiction, the novels in the series are mostly travelogues , feature copious violence, and often depict civilized heroes captured by uncivilized cultures and mimicking their captors to survive. Most Barsoom novels follow a familiar plot structure wherein a hero is forced to a far-off location in search of a woman kidnapped by an odious but powerful villain. Female characters are likely to be virtuous and fight off amorous advances and other dangers until able to connect with

9996-474: The mineral jarosite . This forms only in the presence of acidic water, showing that water once existed on Mars. The Spirit rover found concentrated deposits of silica in 2007 that indicated wet conditions in the past, and in December 2011, the mineral gypsum , which also forms in the presence of water, was found on the surface by NASA's Mars rover Opportunity. It is estimated that the amount of water in

10115-613: The mineral olivine , which is known to be common on Mars, or by Martian life. Compared to Earth, its higher concentration of atmospheric CO 2 and lower surface pressure may be why sound is attenuated more on Mars, where natural sources are rare apart from the wind. Using acoustic recordings collected by the Perseverance rover, researchers concluded that the speed of sound there is approximately 240 m/s for frequencies below 240 Hz, and 250 m/s for those above. Auroras have been detected on Mars. Because Mars lacks

10234-504: The moons of Mars , when in fact they live in an underground stronghold near the south pole of the planet, around the submartian Sea of Omean, below the Lost Sea of Korus, where they keep a large aerial navy. They call themselves the 'First-Born', believing themselves to be a unique creation among Martian races, and worship Issus, a woman who styles herself as the God of the Martian religion but

10353-427: The mountain is so large, with complex structure at its edges, giving a definite height to it is difficult. Its local relief, from the foot of the cliffs which form its northwest margin to its peak, is over 21 km (13 mi), a little over twice the height of Mauna Kea as measured from its base on the ocean floor. The total elevation change from the plains of Amazonis Planitia , over 1,000 km (620 mi) to

10472-431: The movement of dry dust. No partially degraded gullies have formed by weathering and no superimposed impact craters have been observed, indicating that these are young features, possibly still active. Other geological features, such as deltas and alluvial fans preserved in craters, are further evidence for warmer, wetter conditions at an interval or intervals in earlier Mars history. Such conditions necessarily require

10591-699: The name suggests. Air travel over the barrier is discouraged through the use of a great magnetic pillar called "The Guardian of the North," which draws fliers of all sizes inexorably to their doom as they collide with the massive structure. Their cities are domed hothouses which keep out the cold, but outdoors they favor orluk furs and boots. Physically they are large and strong, and the men usually wear bristling black beards. The White Martians, known as 'Orovars', were rulers of Mars for 500,000 years, with an empire of sophisticated cities with advanced technology. They were white-skinned, with blond or auburn hair. They were once

10710-653: The names of Warhoon, Torquas, and Thurd. Yellow Martians are supposedly extinct, but in The Warlord of Mars they are found hiding in secret domed cities at the North Pole of Mars. At the time John Carter arrives on Barsoom, the Yellow Race is known only in old wives' tales and campfire stories. The only means of entrance to the Okarians' city is through The Carrion Caves, which are every bit as unpleasant as

10829-514: The northwest, to the summit approaches 26 km (16 mi), roughly three times the height of Mount Everest , which in comparison stands at just over 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi). Consequently, Olympus Mons is either the tallest or second-tallest mountain in the Solar System ; the only known mountain which might be taller is the Rheasilvia peak on the asteroid Vesta , at 20–25 km (12–16 mi). The dichotomy of Martian topography

10948-468: The old canal maps ), has a length of 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) and a depth of up to 7 kilometres (4.3 mi). The length of Valles Marineris is equivalent to the length of Europe and extends across one-fifth the circumference of Mars. By comparison, the Grand Canyon on Earth is only 446 kilometres (277 mi) long and nearly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) deep. Valles Marineris was formed due to

11067-488: The original White Martians who live in a complex of caves and passages in the cliffs above the Valley Dor. This is the destination of the River Iss, on whose currents most Martians eventually travel, on a pilgrimage seeking final paradise, once tired of life or reaching 1000 years of age. The valley is actually populated by monsters who, overseen by Therns, attack all who enter the valley, killing and exsanguinating them for

11186-429: The parties from Mars eventually return to their home planet with Carter and Dejah still separated and the latter believed still captive on Thuria. In a final twist, she is revealed as still in the hands of Gar Nal, whom Ur Jan, honoring his earlier pledge of fealty to Carter, redeems himself by dispatching. The first letter of the preface and the subsequent twenty-four chapters of the book form an acrostic message from

11305-842: The past. This paleomagnetism of magnetically susceptible minerals is similar to the alternating bands found on Earth's ocean floors . One hypothesis, published in 1999 and re-examined in October ;2005 (with the help of the Mars Global Surveyor ), is that these bands suggest plate tectonic activity on Mars four billion years ago, before the planetary dynamo ceased to function and the planet's magnetic field faded. The Phoenix lander returned data showing Martian soil to be slightly alkaline and containing elements such as magnesium , sodium , potassium and chlorine . These nutrients are found in soils on Earth. They are necessary for growth of plants. Experiments performed by

11424-510: The physical realm, they have bred the Rykors , a complementary species composed of a body similar to that of a perfect specimen of Red Martian but lacking a head; when the Kaldane places itself upon the shoulders of the Rykor, a bundle of tentacles connects with the Rykor's spinal cord , allowing the brain of the Kaldane to interface with the body of the Rykor. Should the Rykor become damaged or die,

11543-404: The planet, particularly the poles. The Red Martians are said in A Princess of Mars to have been bred when the seas of Barsoom began to dry up, in hopes of creating a hardy race to survive in the new environment. They are, like all the humanoid races of Mars, oviparous , i.e., their newborn hatch from eggs. The Red Martians are highly civilized, respect the idea of private property, adhere to

11662-479: The poles. Burroughs explained his ideas about the Martian environment in an article "A Dispatch on Mars" published in the London Daily Express in 1926. He assumed that Mars was formerly identical to the Earth; therefore a similar evolutionary development of fauna would have taken place. He referenced winds, snows, and marshes supposedly observed by astronomers, as evidence of an atmosphere, and that

11781-562: The possibility of past or present life on Mars remains of great scientific interest. Since the late 20th century, Mars has been explored by uncrewed spacecraft and rovers , with the first flyby by the Mariner 4 probe in 1965, the first orbit by the Mars 2 probe in 1971, and the first landing by the Viking 1 probe in 1976. As of 2023, there are at least 11 active probes orbiting Mars or on

11900-431: The principal example, although another plays a prominent role in A Fighting Man of Mars . Instances of the use of superstition by religious cults to control and manipulate others are also common. A Princess of Mars was possibly the first fiction of the 20th century to feature a constructed language ; although Barsoomian was not particularly developed, it did add verisimilitude to the narrative. Most villains in

12019-621: The process was far from perfect, and generated monstrosities ranging from the occasional misplaced nose or eyeball to " a great mass of living flesh with an eye somewhere and a single hand. " When Burroughs wrote the first volume of the Barsoom series, aviation and radio technology was in its infancy and radioactivity was a fledgling science. Despite this, the series includes a range of technological developments including radium munitions, battles between fleets of aircraft, devices similar to faxes and televisions, genetic manipulation, elements of terraforming and other ideas. One notable device mentioned

12138-566: The radiation of 1.84 millisieverts per day or 22 millirads per day during the flight to and from Mars. For comparison the radiation levels in low Earth orbit , where Earth's space stations orbit, are around 0.5 millisieverts of radiation per day. Hellas Planitia has the lowest surface radiation at about 0.342 millisieverts per day, featuring lava tubes southwest of Hadriacus Mons with potentially levels as low as 0.064 millisieverts per day, comparable to radiation levels during flights on Earth. Although better remembered for mapping

12257-412: The series, and the environment beyond the cities is populated by a variety of ferocious beasts, many roughly equivalent with Earth creatures and most bearing multiple sets of limbs. There are numerous examples of striking coincidences and dei ex machina usually to the benefit of the protagonists. Mad scientists also appear, Ras Thavas from The Master Mind of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars being

12376-467: The size of Earth's Arctic Ocean . This finding was derived from the ratio of protium to deuterium in the modern Martian atmosphere compared to that ratio on Earth. The amount of Martian deuterium (D/H = 9.3 ± 1.7 10 ) is five to seven times the amount on Earth (D/H = 1.56 10 ), suggesting that ancient Mars had significantly higher levels of water. Results from the Curiosity rover had previously found

12495-429: The size of the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin , which would be the largest impact basin yet discovered if confirmed. It has been hypothesized that the basin was formed when Mars was struck by a Pluto -sized body about four billion years ago. The event, thought to be the cause of the Martian hemispheric dichotomy , created the smooth Borealis basin that covers 40% of the planet. A 2023 study shows evidence, based on

12614-422: The south polar ice cap, if melted, would be enough to cover most of the surface of the planet with a depth of 11 metres (36 ft). Water in its liquid form cannot prevail on the surface of Mars due to the low atmospheric pressure on Mars, which is less than 1% that of Earth, only at the lowest of elevations pressure and temperature is high enough for water being able to be liquid for short periods. Water in

12733-461: The southern highlands include detectable amounts of high-calcium pyroxenes . Localized concentrations of hematite and olivine have been found. Much of the surface is deeply covered by finely grained iron(III) oxide dust. Although Mars has no evidence of a structured global magnetic field , observations show that parts of the planet's crust have been magnetized, suggesting that alternating polarity reversals of its dipole field have occurred in

12852-505: The study of Mars. Smaller craters are named for towns and villages of the world with populations of less than 100,000. Large valleys are named for the word "Mars" or "star" in various languages; smaller valleys are named for rivers. Large albedo features retain many of the older names but are often updated to reflect new knowledge of the nature of the features. For example, Nix Olympica (the snows of Olympus) has become Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus). The surface of Mars as seen from Earth

12971-541: The surface of an alien world, frequently include sword fighting, monsters, supernatural elements such as telepathic abilities, and civilizations similar to Earth in pre-technological eras, particularly with the inclusion of dynastic or religious social structures. Spacecraft appear in the stories, but are not central to the story. The series can also be classified as the closely related genre sword and planet , which consists of what are essentially sword and sorcery stories that take place on another planet. The stories also share

13090-513: The surface. However, later work suggested that the lineae may be dry, granular flows instead, with at most a limited role for water in initiating the process. A definitive conclusion about the presence, extent, and role of liquid water on the Martian surface remains elusive. Researchers suspect much of the low northern plains of the planet were covered with an ocean hundreds of meters deep, though this theory remains controversial. In March 2015, scientists stated that such an ocean might have been

13209-430: The surface. "Dena" is the only exception; its floor is visible and was measured to be 130 metres (430 ft) deep. The interiors of these caverns may be protected from micrometeoroids, UV radiation, solar flares and high energy particles that bombard the planet's surface. Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago, possibly because of numerous asteroid strikes, so the solar wind interacts directly with

13328-625: The swelling of the Tharsis area, which caused the crust in the area of Valles Marineris to collapse. In 2012, it was proposed that Valles Marineris is not just a graben , but a plate boundary where 150 kilometres (93 mi) of transverse motion has occurred, making Mars a planet with possibly a two- tectonic plate arrangement. Images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have revealed seven possible cave entrances on

13447-441: The theory was put forward by a number of prominent scientists, notably Lowell , that these were huge engineering works constructed by an intelligent race. This view, though utterly false as is now known, inspired much science fiction. The thinning Barsoomian atmosphere is artificially replenished by an "atmosphere plant" on whose function all life on the planet is dependent. The Martian year comprises 687 Martian days, each of which

13566-507: The upper mantle of Mars, represented by hydroxyl ions contained within Martian minerals, is equal to or greater than that of Earth at 50–300 parts per million of water, which is enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of 200–1,000 metres (660–3,280 ft). On 18 March 2013, NASA reported evidence from instruments on the Curiosity rover of mineral hydration , likely hydrated calcium sulfate , in several rock samples including

13685-400: The wastes of the planet had been irrigated (probably referencing Lowell's "canals"), which suggested that an advanced civilization existed on the planet. All Barsoomian races resemble Homo sapiens in most respects, except for being oviparous (making them classified as monotremes instead) and having lifespans in excess of 1,000 years (though actual life expectancy is far shorter.) However,

13804-420: The widespread presence of crater lakes across a large proportion of the surface, for which there is independent mineralogical, sedimentological and geomorphological evidence. Further evidence that liquid water once existed on the surface of Mars comes from the detection of specific minerals such as hematite and goethite , both of which sometimes form in the presence of water. In 2004, Opportunity detected

13923-436: Was marked by meteor impacts , valley formation, erosion, and the possible presence of water oceans . The Hesperian period (3.5 to 3.3–2.9 billion years ago) was dominated by widespread volcanic activity and flooding that carved immense outflow channels . The Amazonian period, which continues to the present, has been marked by the wind as a dominant influence on geological processes . Due to Mars's geological history,

14042-629: Was probably the root cause of the incision in almost all cases. Along craters and canyon walls, there are thousands of features that appear similar to terrestrial gullies . The gullies tend to be in the highlands of the Southern Hemisphere and face the Equator; all are poleward of 30° latitude. A number of authors have suggested that their formation process involves liquid water, probably from melting ice, although others have argued for formation mechanisms involving carbon dioxide frost or

14161-437: Was reported that InSight had detected and recorded over 450 marsquakes and related events. Beneath the crust is a silicate mantle responsible for many of the tectonic and volcanic features on the planet's surface. The upper Martian mantle is a low-velocity zone , where the velocity of seismic waves is lower than surrounding depth intervals. The mantle appears to be rigid down to the depth of about 250 km, giving Mars

#246753