Word: planet
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...awards as best science fiction novel of the year, and rapidly became an underground cult classic. In 1969, a sequel appeared, Dune Messiah, the further adventures of Paul Atreides, Muad'Dib, and Emperor of the Fremen. Now Herbert has presented us with another, final tale of Arrakis, the Dune planet--a sort of a sequel to a sequel. Like most sequels, Children of Dune recalls the worst things about the first two books...
...scientists seemed particularly disappointed that the pictures showed no obvious signs of life-no lichen, bushes or trees, nothing even remotely resembling an animal or the monsters or little green men beloved by generations of science-fiction writers. Said Exobiologist Carl Sagan: "The pictures do not suggest that the planet is filled, pole to pole, with living things." But, noted Sagan, nothing in the pictures ruled out the existence of life on the planet either. Soffen added that the lander's immediate vicinity held half a dozen niches in which conventional biology, including hundreds of life forms, could...
Indeed, Mars seems to possess many of the elements essential to life on earth. Most of Mars' visible water appears in the form of atmospheric vapor or ice locked in the planet's two polar caps (the surface pressure on Mars is so low* that liquid water would probably boil away). But liquid water apparently once did flow freely on the Martian surface in earlier days; Viking's orbital pictures show that the planet is crisscrossed by dry "riverbeds" and sinuous valleys, including a deep Grand Canyon-like depression called the Valles Marineris, that were probably carved...
...communications with earth are cut off, Viking's two cameras will take regular photographs of Chryse Planitia, observing what takes place throughout each Sol, or Martian day, of 24 hr. 37 min. Other instruments, meanwhile, will sample the contents of the Martian atmosphere, register the planet's temperatures, which range from a low of -200° during darkness to a high of +50° during the day, and record wind velocities, barometric pressures and humidity. A seismograph, placed aboard the Viking to detect Marsquakes and volcanic activity, was apparently not working at week's end, but scientists...
There was nothing routine about the weather report issued last week by Viking Meteorologist Seymour Hess. It was the first ever from the planet Mars...