Mars, 60,000 Years Ago
Nobody wrote down what Mars looked like 59,619 years
ago, the last time it was as close to Earth as this
week. They also failed to note who all
was on this planet and what they were doing.
But scientists have pieced together some information, and they figure a family of Neanderthals, perhaps like this one, would have seen a reddish dot something like what's depicted in this artist's conception.
The family does not appear to be worrying about little
green men. It took modern human intellect to come up with that
concern. In fact, they don't even seem
to notice Mars at all. Perhaps the Neanderthals were annoyed with another sort
of creature, though: the humans they probably competed with.
Neanderthals lived in parts of Eurasia during the last Ice Age. They looked similar to modern humans but with more pronounced foreheads, wider noses and larger jaws. Neanderthals were short, stocky and said to be robust.
Not robust enough, though. They died out, about 35,000 years ago. Nobody knows why. Perhaps your great-great-a-thousand-times-great grandparents did them in, experts speculate.
The woolly mammoth, pictured in the back right of the drawing, didn't make
it either. (I try and never miss an opportunity to mention woolly mammoths in
an article. Otherwise, far as I know, they have nothing whatsoever to do with
Mars.) A lot of other species haven't survived the 60 millennia between these
closest planetary passes, either.
Perhaps as modern humans around the world gaze up
and ponder our shimmering red planetary neighbor this week, we can hope the
fate of our species is better than some of those who last witnessed Mars this
close. [Mars
Watch: Viewer's Guide]
-- Robert
Roy Britt
Credit: NASA/Randii Oliver
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