Martians

Wikipedia

As an adjective, the term "martian" is used to describe anything pertaining to the planet Mars.

However, a Martian is more usually a hypothetical or fictional native inhabitant of the planet Mars. Historically, life on Mars has often been hypothesized, although there is currently no solid evidence of life there at present. Some scientists have theorized that there is evidence of fossilized microbes in the meteorite ALH84001.

History of the concept

The idea of intelligent Martians was popularized by Percival Lowell and in fiction, especially by Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter (Barsoom) Series, H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds and Ray Bradburys The Martian Chronicles. Despite the observation by Alfred Wallace that Mars atmosphere was too thin to support an Earth-like ecology, various depictions of a Martian civilization were popular throughout the 20th century. The first pictures of Mars returned by space probes dashed hopes of contacting Martians, although claims of past Martian civilizations have continued into the twenty-first century (see Cydonia for one such claim).

Martians in fiction

The Martian was a favorite character of science fiction; he was frequently found away from his home planet, often invading Earth, but sometimes simply a lonely character representing alienness from his surroundings. Some martians were actually hailed as gods and people created a religion for them. Martians, other than human beings transplanted to Mars, became rare in fiction after the visit of the space probe Mariner 4 to Mars, except in exercises of deliberate nostalgia - more frequently in genres such as comics and animation than in written literature.

Literary Martians
* The War of the Worlds (1898) by H. G. Wells. The Martians are an ancient, advanced race with a tentacled, cephalopod-like appearance. They cultivate a "red weed", which is what was giving Mars its red color. They invade Earth with huge tripedal "fighting machines" a read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian