The Red Planet

Have you ever wondered why Mars is Red? Chances are you have, and similar chances are that you know it is due to the oxidation of Haematite minerals on the surface. Well one man claims to have completely revamped the idea of where the red in "The Red Planet" comes from.

I came across this story via FB and thought, "ahhh it's in the Daily Mail" (the Daily Fail to us scientists and pretty much anyone with half an ounce of sense) "let's see what tosh they're spouting today"

LINK TO STORY

Dr John Brandedneberg a senior propulsion scientist believes that 180ma a natural nuclear explosion wiped out everything on the planet and the background radiation still present causes the planet to be it's famous red colour. Well It sounds like a plausible theory until you think of Earth, and the many many nucleur explosions (man made) that have happened here. We don't have a red planet.....

But this supposed "whacky" theory has had some backing from NASA. A NASA spokesperson has said that in order to prove this "very interesting and plausible" theory, a mission to Mars would have to be planned. As always with Daily Mail stories I do like to have a giggle at the reader comments, and most of these seem to be centred around the failure of NASA, and how NASA are lying to us, and when the Russians release pictures the world will see that Mars is actually blue, there was also the usual dribble about the Earth ending in 2012 (quite how that relates to Mars and its colour I'm not sure).

So readers, is the colour of Mars a topic that should come into our classrooms as a part of the curriculum? I think so... If teachers made the usual "this is how and why things go rusty" lessons relate to Mars it would be a lot more interesting and it may just stick with children into the future to when they are adults and come across a poor story like this one in the daily mail. Then they will be able to make an informed judgement on the accuracy of the science and make their minds up for themselves.

GF