Floyd Jaueh, age l2, of Presidio of San Francisco, calif., for his question:

Why is Mars called the red planet?

Venus is our neighbor on the sunward side and shines bright with a golden light. Our neighbor on the opposite side is mars, and compared with Venus the light of Mars is much closer to red. At its best it glows like a bright orange or ruby lantern. Seen from the earth, Mars is the reddest of the visible planets.

Seen through a telescope, mars is less red. Its surface blotches range from bright to murky yellow, from rosy pink to reddish brown. Throughout the long Martian year it turns to face us with first one, then the other of its white capped polar regions.  When the Viking Spacecraft landed on Mars we discovered the surface was indeed a very bright yellowish reddish color.