Red Planet

Red Planet is a nickname for the planet Mars, due to its surface color. It may also refer to:

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Named after the Roman god of war, it is often referred to as the "Red Planet" because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.

The rotational period and seasonal cycles of Mars are likewise similar to those of Earth, as is the tilt that produces the seasons. Mars is the site of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and second-highest known mountain in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System. The smooth Borealis basin in the northern hemisphere covers 40% of the planet and may be a giant impact feature. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped. These may be captured asteroids, similar to 5261 Eureka, a Mars trojan.

Val Kilmer

Val Edward Kilmer (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! (1984), then the cult classic Real Genius (1985), as well as the blockbuster action film Top Gun (1986) and the swords and sorcery fantasy film Willow (1988).

Some of his other notable film roles include Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991), Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993), armed robber Chris Shiherlis in Heat (1995), Bruce Wayne / Batman in Batman Forever (1995), Simon Templar in The Saint (1997), astronaut Robby Gallagher in Red Planet (2000), and a meth-using informant in The Salton Sea (2002).

Early life and education

Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Gladys (née Ekstadt) and Eugene Kilmer, an aerospace equipment distributor and real estate developer. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley with his two siblings, older brother Mark and younger brother Wesley (1962–1977), who died at 15 due to an epileptic seizure in a swimming pool. His parents divorced when he was nine years old. His father died while Val was filming Tombstone. Kilmer's grandfather was a gold miner in New Mexico, near the border with Arizona; The poet Joyce Kilmer is a distant cousin of Kilmer. His mother was of Swedish descent. His father's ancestry included English, Scots-Irish, French, German, and Cherokee Native American.

Red Planet Mars

Red Planet Mars is a 1952 science fiction film released by United Artists based on a 1932 play Red Planet written by John L. Balderston and John Hoare. It starred Peter Graves and Andrea King and was directed by art director Harry Horner in his directorial debut.

Plot

An American astronomer obtains images of Mars suggesting large-scale environmental changes are occurring at a pace that can only be accomplished by intelligent beings with advanced technology. At the same time a colleague claims to have been contacting Mars by radio, using technology stolen from the Nazis after World War II. He communicates first through an exchange of mathematical concepts, like the value of pi, and then through answers to specific questions about Martian life. The transmissions claim that Mars is a utopia fueled by nuclear power, which has led to great technological advancement and the elimination of scarcity, but that there is no fear of nuclear war.

This revelation leads to political and economic chaos, especially in the Western hemisphere, and is said to have "done more to smash the democratic world in the last four weeks than the Russians have been able to do in eleven years." The U.S. government imposes a news blackout and orders the transmissions to stop due to fears that the Soviet Union could pick up and decode their messages. This ends when the next message reveals that the Earth is condemned to the constant fear of nuclear war as a punishment for straying from the teachings of the Bible. Revolution sweeps the globe, including the Soviet Union, which is overthrown and replaced by a theocracy, which is met with celebration in America.

Planet

A planet (from Ancient Greek ἀστήρ πλανήτης astēr planētēs, or πλάνης ἀστήρ plánēs astēr, meaning "wandering star") is an astronomical object orbiting a star or stellar remnant that

The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science, mythology, and religion. Several planets in the Solar System can be seen with the naked eye. These were regarded by many early cultures as divine, or as emissaries of deities. As scientific knowledge advanced, human perception of the planets changed, incorporating a number of disparate objects. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially adopted a resolution defining planets within the Solar System. This definition is controversial because it excludes many objects of planetary mass based on where or what they orbit. Although eight of the planetary bodies discovered before 1950 remain "planets" under the modern definition, some celestial bodies, such as Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta (each an object in the solar asteroid belt), and Pluto (the first trans-Neptunian object discovered), that were once considered planets by the scientific community, are no longer viewed as such.