We can’t say with absolute certainty, but there are plenty of clues hinting to Mars having had quite an Earth-like appearance back in the day, with flowing water all around and an atmosphere to hold it all together. Now it’s dead, but probably not for long, if humans can do anything about it.
Like it or not, nature is not a sharpshooter, and when it comes to rocks falling out of the sky on any given planet, it’s anybody’s guess as to where they’re going to hit. But it’s borderline commonsense that, just like lightning, asteroids never strike the same place twice. Or do they?
It’s been 15 years already since the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) reached the neighboring planet’s orbit with only one goal in mind: survey it from above. In that time, countless images of the Red Planet have made their way back to Earth, but most of them have remained largely unknown to the wider public for various reasons.
For ages, when people are thinking about Mars, the first and probably only color that comes to mind is red. That’s, of course, somewhat inaccurate, but it happens nonetheless.