Summary

Mars, like planet Earth, is a complex and vast world with a long history. The authors of this book give a new insight of Mars by adopting an original outline based on history rather than on subtopic (atmosphere, surface, interior). They focus on the past and present evolution of Mars and also incorporate all the recent results from the space missions of Mars Express, Spirit and Opportunity. This book goes to the heart of current planetological research, and illustrates it with many beautiful images. The authors describe the magnificent scenery on Mars including Olympus Mons, more than 20,000 metres high and the solar system's biggest volcano. At Mars' poles, glaciers, formed from thousands of fine strata, are evidence of past climatic fluctuations. Drs Forget and Costard and Professor Lognonnè introduce a new world and reveal the workings of the planet Mars. They answer the questions: How was Mars formed? Why has its evolution followed a different path to that of Earth? What do its river beds, volcanoes and glaciers tell us about its past? Could life have existed there? Does it exist there now? What processes 'drive' Mars today? The five parts of the book trace the history of Mars. Part 1 examines its formation from the ashes of dead stars, more than 4·5 billion years ago. Part 2 travels through its early and turbulent youth and gradual, 3·5-billion-year long metamorphosis. Part 3 traces the creation of great planetary structures while Part 4 explores this active planet as it is today, with its dust storms, water features and atmosphere, and shows that Mars is subject to continual climatic change. Finally in Part 5, the story of the recent exploration of Mars and current research in laboratories and space agencies in preparation for the missions of the next twenty years is recounted.

Welcome to Mars!	p. 2
Introduction	p. 4
Martian landscapes	p. 9
Chronology of Mars	p. 12
Birth of a Planet: -4.6 to -3.8 billion years	p. 17
Before Mars and the other planets	p. 18
Very rapid protoplanetary growth	p. 21
Formation of the core, crust and mantle	p. 24
The evolution of Mars, the Earth, Venus and Mercury	p. 27
What Martian meteorites tell us	p. 30
The origin of atmospheres and water	p. 33
Meteoritic bombardment	p. 36
The enigma of the 'north-south dissymmetry'	p. 39
The primordial dynamo and magnetic field	p. 42
The moons of Mars: captured asteroids?	p. 45
A Youthful Mars: -4 to -3.5 billion years	p. 49
Rivers on Mars!	p. 50
The source of Mars' rivers	p. 53
The mystery of the lakes	p. 56
Traces of water	p. 59
A history of many chapters	p. 62
In search of a lost ocean	p. 65
The mystery of Mars' past climate	p. 68
The theory of life on Mars	p. 71
Hunting for fossils	p. 74
A unique witness: 4 billion years old	p. 77
The end of an oasis: Mars loses its atmosphere	p. 80
Life on Mars today	p. 83
The Slow Metamorphosis: -3.8 to -0.1 billion years	p. 87
A sub-surface motor: convection in the mantle	p. 88
Giant volcanoes on Mars	p. 91
Olympus Mons: the solar system's biggest volcano	p. 94
Lava flows and lava plains	p. 97
Ridges and cracks on the surface	p. 100
Valles Marineris: the valley of wonders	p. 103
A permanently frozen sub-surface	p. 106
The mystery of the chaotic terrains	p. 109
Outflow channels	p. 111
A drive around the mouth of Ares Vallis	p. 114
A second Siberia	p. 117
Climates and Storms Mars today	p. 121
Seasons and temperatures	p. 122
The atmosphere of Mars	p. 125
Martian winds	p. 128
Martian meteorology	p. 131
Dunes, ergs and erosion: footprints of the winds	p. 134
The dust cycle: ever-orange skies	p. 137
The dust cycle: planet of storms	p. 140
The dust cycle: whirlwinds of dust	p. 143
The dust cycle: global storms	p. 146
The water cycle: vapour, frost and ice - water on Mars	p. 149
The water cycle: clouds and fogs	p. 152
The CO[subscript 2] cycle: seasonal polar caps	p. 155
The CO[subscript 2] cycle: an atmosphere which solidifies	p. 158
The CO[subscript 2] cycle: the vagaries of carbon dioxide ice	p. 161
The CO[subscript 2] cycle: the residual southern polar cap	p. 164
Climate change: when Mars rocks on its axis	p. 167
Climate change: ancient glaciers on Mars	p. 170
Climate change: surface ice at high latitudes	p. 173
Climate change: intermittent water flows	p. 176
Climate change: polar sediments, evidence of past climates	p. 179
Exploring Mars: 1650-2050	p. 183
Telescopic voyages	p. 184
First visitors: the Mariner probes	p. 187
Soviet setbacks	p. 190
Viking	p. 192
A difficult exploration	p. 195
New American initiatives	p. 198
Spirit and Opportunity: wheels on Mars	p. 201
Europe joins in: Mars Express	p. 205
The future of European Mars exploration	p. 208
Imagination serves exploration	p. 211
The Grail: returning samples	p. 214
Astronauts on Mars	p. 217
Epilogue	p. 220
Index	p. 225
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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