Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Named after the Roman god of war, it is often referred to as the “Red Planet” because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
Facts about Planet Mars
1. Mars and Earth have approximately the same landmass. Even though Mars has only 15% of the Earth volume and just over 10% of the Earth’s mass, around two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Martian surface gravity is only 37% of the Earth’s (meaning you could leap nearly three times higher on Mars).
2. Mars has the largest dust storms in the solar system. They can last for months and cover the entire planet. The seasons are extreme because its elliptical (oval-shaped) orbital path around the Sun is more elongated than most other planets in the solar system.
Related Post: Solar System Tour: The Sun
3. Pieces of Mars have been found on Earth. It is believed that trace amounts of the Martian atmosphere were within meteorites that the planet ejected. These meteorites then orbited the solar system for millions of years amongst the other objects and solar debris before eventually entering the Earth’s atmosphere and crashing to the ground. The study of this material has allowed scientists to discover more about Mars before launching space missions.
4. The tallest mountain known in the solar system is on Mars. Olympus Mons is a 21 km high and 600 km diameter shield volcano that was formed billions of years ago. Scientists have found a lot of recent evidence of volcanic lava which suggests Olympus Mons may still be active.
Related Post: Solar System Tour (Planet Earth)
5. Mars would kill an unprotected astronaut quickly. There are a lot of unpleasant scenarios for somebody who took of their helmet. First, Mars is usually pretty cold; its average temperature is -50 degrees Fahrenheit (-45 degrees Celsius) at the mid-latitudes. Second, it has practically no atmosphere. The air pressure on Mars is only 1% of what we have on the Earth’s surface. And third, even if it did have atmosphere, the composition is not compatible with the nitrogen-oxygen mix humans require. Specifically, Mars has about 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon and a few other elements in its atmosphere.
6. Of all the planets in the Solar System, Mars is the one that people believe is most likely to contain or to have contained life.
Related Post: Solar System Tour (Planet Venus)
7. Mars has polar caps like Earth, although Mars’ polar caps contain mostly frozen carbon dioxide instead of frozen water.
8. Mars has seasons like Earth. This is caused by the tilt of the planet’s axis, at a similar angle to the tilt of Earth’s axis.
9. If you weighed 70 pounds (32 kg) on the Earth, you would weigh about 27 pounds (12 kg) on Mars.
10. Mars can easily be seen from Earth with the naked eye, as can its reddish coloring.
