New name for Mars? Musk wishes to change Red Planet's moniker

The trend of renaming places that were christened eons ago seems to be catching on, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk now calling for the renaming of planet Mars, which got its name from the ancient Romans who found the planet's colour to be reminiscent of blood and named it after their god of war.

The tech Mogul took to X (formerly Twitter), and shared his desire for the planet Mars to be renamed as "New World'.

The term "New World" was used by Europe to describe the Americas.

In the post, Musk shared a picture of Martian landscape from Gale Crater. The picture was taken by the Curiosity rover which is roaming the surface of our neighbouring planet.

Earlier, Musk has expressed an interest in transforming Mars into a self-sufficient planet for humans. This will enable our species to become a a multi-planetary one.

Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) , "Mars will be called the “New World”, just as America was in past centuries."

Earlier this month, Neil Degrasse Tyson, the American astrophysicist and writer, criticised Musk's mission to colonise and settle on Mars. He says that humans do "big expansive things" when it is geopolitically expedient. If humans feel threatened by an enemy, they try to eliminate that risk.

He goes on to make a quip about this, saying, "Elon what do you want to do? 'Go to Mars' How much will it cost? '1 trillion dollars' What's the return on investment? 'Nothing' That's a 5 minute meeting."

The astrophysicist also said, the Mars initiative lacks tangible returns on investment and believes it was better if the resources were directed towards addressing urgent issues on Earth.

However, Elon wrote on X saying," Wow, they really don’t get it. Mars is critical to the long-term survival of consciousness. Also, I’m not going to ask any venture capitalists for money. I realize that it makes no sense as an investment. That’s why I’m gathering resources.