Mary Reed, age 12, of Peoria, Illinois, for her question:

Why is Mars called the Red Planet?

If you look carefully, you will see that the planet Mars glows with a reddish tinge. It is quite reddish when compared with the golden yellow of the planet Venus. This is enough reason to call Mars the Red Planet. What's more, the telescope bears this out.

Telescope pictures show Mars as a reddish brown color. At certain times white polar caps are visible and during certain seasons vast areas of the planet seem to be tinged with a greenish color. In the main, however, the surface seems to remain a reddish brown. Some people have suggested that the greenish tinge is proof of seasonal vegetation on our neighbor planet and most experts learn more and more to the theory that some kind of simple life exists there, however, recent sampling of the surface with robotic spacecraft so far have not found evidence of plant life.