Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable for humans to live on.
An artist's conception shows a terraformed Mars in four stages of development.
Artist's conception of a terraformed Mars
True-color image of Venus. To terraform, this dense atmosphere will need to be removed.
Artist's conception of a terraformed Venus
Planetary engineering is the development and application of technology for the purpose of influencing the environment of a planet. Planetary engineering encompasses a variety of methods such as terraforming, seeding, and geoengineering.
Projected temperature and precipitation changes relative to preindustrial; end-of-century response without (a) and with (b) geoengineering to avoid temperature rise above 1.5C.
A theoretical design for a power station on Mars. Terraforming designs are not yet planned.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took the picture of Mars on June 26, 2001, when Mars was approximately 68 million kilometers (43 million miles) from Earth — the closest Mars has ever been to Earth since 1988. Hubble can see details as small as 16 kilometers (10 miles) across. The colors have been carefully balanced to give a realistic view of Mars' hues as they might appear through a telescope. Especially striking is the large amount of seasonal dust storm activity seen in this image. One large storm system is churning high above the northern polar cap (top of image), and a smaller dust storm cloud can be seen nearby. Another large dust storm is spilling out of the giant Hellas impact basin in the Southern Hemisphere (lower right) exploration.
Impression of the hypothetical phrases of the terraforming of Mars
