Blending scientific inquiry with human passion, "Dead Mars, Dying Earth" is a powerful call to save the world while it's still possible to do so.

For more than a century, Mars has been at the center of debates about humanity’s place in the cosmos. Focusing on perceptions of the red planet in scientific works and science fiction, Dying Planet analyzes the ways Mars has served as a screen onto which humankind has projected both its hopes for the future and its fears of ecological devastation on Earth. Robert Markley draws on planetary astronomy, the history and cultural study of science, science fiction, literary and cultural criticism, ecology, and astrobiology to offer a cross-disciplinary investigation of the cultural and scientific dynamics that have kept Mars on front pages since the 1800s. Markley interweaves chapters on science and science fiction, enabling him to illuminate each arena and to explore the ways their concerns overlap and influence one another. He tracks all the major scientific developments, from observations through primitive telescopes in the seventeenth century to data returned by the rovers that landed on Mars in 2004. Markley describes how major science fiction writers—H. G. Wells, Kim Stanley Robinson, Philip K. Dick, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and Judith Merril—responded to new theories and new controversies. He also considers representations of Mars in film, on the radio, and in the popular press. In its comprehensive study of both science and science fiction, Dying Planet reveals how changing conceptions of Mars have had crucial consequences for understanding ecology on Earth.

New proof of a nuclear catastrophe on Mars! In an epic story of discovery, strong evidence is presented for a dead civilization on Mars and the shocking reason for its demise: an ancient planetary-scale nuclear massacre leaving isotopic traces of vast explosions that endure to our present age. The story told by a wide range of Mars data is now clear. Mars was once Earth-like in climate, with an ocean and rivers, and for a long period became home to both plant and animal life, including a humanoid civilization. Then, for unfathomable reasons, a massive thermo-nuclear explosion ravaged the centers of the Martian civilization and destroyed the biosphere of the planet. But the story does not end there. This tragedy may explain Fermi's Paradox, the fact that the cosmos, seemingly so fertile and with so many planets suitable for life, is as silent as a graveyard. We must immediately send astronauts to Mars to maximize our knowledge of what happened there, and learn how to avoid Mars’ fate. Includes an 8-page color section.

Mass Extinction and Nuclear Catastrophe on Mars! Astrophysicist Brandenburg says that everything you have been taught about Mars is wrong. The terrible truth: Mars was actually Earthlike for most of its geologic history. Mars held a massive and evolving biosphere. Mars was the wracked by a mysterious and astonishing nuclear catastrophe. We are, biologically and culturally, the Children of Mars. Chapters include: Oasis Earth; The School of Mars; The Dream of Mars; The Vikings of Mars; The Oxygen of Mars; The Paleo-Ocean of Mars; The Crystal Palace of Mars; The Chixulube of Mars; The New Mars Synthesis; The Twilight of Mars; Endgame of Mars; The Moons of Mars; The Epilogue of Mars; more. Includes an 8-page color section.

The tranquility of Mars is disrupted by humans who want to conquer space, colonize the planet, and escape a doomed Earth.