The next planet out from Earth’s orbit is the red planet, Mars.
Even without the aid of telescopes, Mars is easily seen and recognized
in the sky by its reddish color.
Because of it striking color and relative brightness in the heavens,
Mars has intrigued observers throughout history.
Today through modern scientific studies, we have gained a much greater wealth
of understanding for the Red Planet, even that its characteristic color
comes from sunlight illuminating the planet’s reddish-brown, iron-rich soil.
Now when considering Mars as a planet, it has many similarities to Earth,
as well as having some drastic differences.
Much like Earth, Mars has varying geological features,
including desert plains, valleys, deep canyons, and various mountains.
Yet despite Mars being half the size of Earth,
it is home to a mountain three times taller than Mt. Everest.
Named Olympus Mons, this mountain is the tallest in the whole Solar System,
extending 17-miles above the surface.
Mars also has Valles Marineris, a canyon feature similar to Earth’s Grand Canyon.
However, Valles Marineris is huge, much larger than the Grand Canyon.
It’s approximately 2485 miles long, meaning it would stretch across
the entire continental United States from New York to San Francisco.
It’s also up to seven times deeper than the Grand Canyon.
These features show both a similarity,
but also the uniqueness of the Martian landscape.
Further similarities include the angle of Mars’ axial tilt
being very close to Earth’s inclination also, allowing for similar seasonal variations.
And also the length of a Martian day, from sunrise to sunrise is only minutes different
from Earth’s 24-hour day.
Mars also has regions of ice at its poles--though not water ice.
It also has varying atmospheric weather patterns, and even small, local atmospheric disturbances
such as tornadoes or dust devils.
However, there are also some very extreme differences between Earth and Mars.
One obvious difference is the barren, desert-like landscape that dominates Mars.
There are no oceans, no lakes, no rivers to be found, which is a stunning contrast to
the vast quantities of liquid water covering Earth’s surface.
With no water and no plant or animal life,
Mars can have enormous runaway global dust storms,
which floods the entire Martian atmosphere with dust,
completely obscuring our view of its surface!
Over the years there have been many investigations into the possibility
of liquid water on Mars, but without any clear evidence.
Even if water or water-ice is found on Mars, the contrast between the Earth’s over 70%
coverage of deep and expansive oceans
to Mars having none on its surface is a drastic distinction.
What makes the contrast even greater is the fact that the Martian atmosphere would restrict
the existence of liquid water over any substantial length of time.
The atmospheric pressure on Mars is over100 times lower
than Earth’s atmospheric pressure,
and the the average surface temperature is around -60 degrees F.
For the majority of Mars’ surface, water could not even exist in a liquid state.
Further comparing Mars’ atmosphere to Earth’s, we find that it is a complete opposite ratio
of oxygen to carbon dioxide.
On Mars, carbon dioxide forms about 95% of the atmosphere with oxygen
and water vapor only accounting for less than 0.2%.
Here on Earth, oxygen accounts for about 21% and carbon dioxide only accounts for about 0.04%.
Thus Mars lacks the necessary atmospheric environment to support
any significant amount of liquid water on its surface.
Given the extremely thin, carbon dioxide dominated atmosphere, the desert-like landscape,
the huge temperature extremes, and only a very weak global magnetic field, any considerations
the for manned space missions to Mars will need to take into account that we will be leaving
our uniquely designed, life-supporting planet behind.
While in many ways Mars has a less hostile environment than Mercury or Venus,
it in no way is life-friendly or characteristic of a world intended for life.
While Mars is not specifically referenced in the Bible,
its created purpose can be contrasted with Earth's.
The Bible says that Earth was created to be inhabited, according Isaiah 45:18.
While the creation of Mars falls within the general context of the “stars” or the
luminaries created on Day 4 with their purpose being to serve as “signs and seasons”.
Being one of the brighter objects in the sky and having a distinct appearance,
Mars has certainly played an important role in the history of many cultures:
Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, and others.
As such, it has certainly fulfilled and continues to fulfill one of its primary created purposes:
to serve as a sign or a marker in time’s progression.