red planetn.

a1500 ( J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1934) ii. 621 (MED) Furious Mars, þe ferfull red sterre..With his bemes cast moste feruently.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 233 As is very observable in their red and splendent Planets, that is of Mars and Venus. View more context for this quotation]

1690 E. Warren Geologia (new ed.) iv. 86 For the same reason, he may be of such a rutilant or fiery colour as he is; which Complexion (among the Hebrews) gives him the name of..the red Planet.

1796 A. Seward Llangollen Vale 3 Each waning Orb withdraws its glancing rays, Save the red Planet, that delights in wars.

1840 H. W. Longfellow in Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pa.) 8 Sept. 1/1 The first watch of night is given To the red planet Mars.

1898 H. G. Wells War of Worlds i. i. 5 Men like Schiaparelli watched the red planet..but failed to interpret the fluctuating appearances of the markings they mapped so well.

1911 H. Macpherson Romance Mod. Astron. viii. 94 In this system the Kaiser Sea—the best known object on the red planet—becomes the Syrtis Major.

1928 E. R. Burroughs Master Mind of Mars 2 During my waking hours at night my eyes always sought out the Red Planet when he was above the horizon.

1977 Time 17 Oct. 45/1 The two Viking landers and their orbiters have spent much of the 15 months since the arrival on Mars snapping pictures of the Red Planet.

2004 Guardian 8 Jan. ii. 4/3 The red planet has a tediously long year (687 days) and a distinctly complicated lunar calendar (two moons).