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Mars

Off-world real estate from the *Sesame Street* Monopoly set.

Mars is a planet that orbits Sol, the Earth's Sun. It is the fourth celestial body classified as a planet, distanced from Earth by between 55 and 100 million kilometers (depending on each planet's orbital coordinates).

As one of the planets in the solar system visible to Earth with the naked eye, Mars has been the subject of great fascination for humans. This was particularly prevalent in the 20th century when telescopes revealed what appeared to be great canyons that covered the surface of the planet, assumed by many to have been created by sentient life forms. As such, hundreds of science-fiction stories have been written about the planet, notably by Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, C.S. Lewis, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.

The 21st century view of Mars comes from a more practical observation of scientific findings over the past 50 years, including robot missions to the planet. While the search continues for evidence of prehistoric life on even the cellular level, fact has never become a hinderance for human imagination.

Such is the case with Sesame Street’s most famous extra-terrestrial visitors, the Martians. Speaking primarily in a series of "yip-yip"s and "uh-huh"s, these strange explorers have journeyed to Earth from their planet to learn about such odd human concepts as telephones and clocks.

Also from their home planet, but clearly a member of a different species, is the Martian Beauty, a creature equipped with nine sets of various extremities.

Non-terrestrial entities are not the only beings to have left their planet, as proven by Big Bird in a Journey to Ernie segment. The 8'2" 6-year-old once ventured to Mars in his search for Ernie, stopping on the way to ask a native for directions.