There’s so much more to Mars than what you read in the news. Learn about some of the incredible facts surrounding this fascinating planet!
Mars has been a planet of interest for centuries. From the ancient Greeks to modern-day NASA scientists, humans have always wondered what it would be like to walk on Mars. In this blog post, we are going to discuss 5 things you may not know about the red planet.
What Is Mars?
Mars is our next-door neighbor. It’s the fourth planet from the Sun, and it’s about half the Earth’s size! You’ll have to travel 143 million miles through space just to get there. It takes 687 Earth days to make a full Martian year and a day on Mars is 24.6 hours long!
Why Is It Red?
The reason for the red color of Mars is that its surface material contains lots of iron oxide. Iron oxide is a red-brown substance found in the Earth’s soil called “rust”.
Another reason is the storms on Mars, which are very large and often form huge dust storms. These are similar to the ones that happen on Earth, but they’re a lot more violent!
1) Mars Surface And Temperature
The surface of Mars is a cold and rocky landscape, but it has many features in common with Earth. Red dust covers the ground as do windy clouds.
The average temperature on Mars can reach up to minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit which may sound cold, but in comparison to other planets like Jupiter or Saturn where temperatures are around negative 160 and 300 respectively seems almost pleasant by contrast!
2) The Atmosphere of The Red Planet
The interesting thing about Mars is that the atmosphere there has a pressure lower than 1% of Earth’s. This means it cannot support liquid water on its surface, which would be fatal for any life that may exist.
One of the most famous things about Mars is that it has a system of long, deep channels which often turn into dry gullies. These are called “chaos”, and scientists have been trying to figure out what caused these strange features for decades!
3) The Two Moons of Mars
Mars has two small, moons named Phobos and Deimos. They are irregular in shape. Both were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall and named after the Greek mythological twins Phobos and Deimos who accompanied their father Ares into battle.
Both moons of Mars are tidally locked, always presenting the same face to their planet. Since Phobos orbits faster than Mars itself rotates, tidal forces gradually decrease its orbital radius over time.
This means that probably in the far future it will crash into Mars’s surface or break up into a ring.
4) Mars And NASA’s Missions
Nasa has made over 20 missions to Mars, most of which were flybys. In 1996 and 1997 the space agency successfully landed two rovers named Sojourner and Pathfinder on its surface.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launched to explore the red planet on July 30, 2020. After landing in February of 2021, the rover is currently exploring the Mars surface searching for signs of life.
Mars has been explored by humans more than any other planet in our solar system, but we still have many unanswered questions about this mysterious world.
You can visit NASA’s Perseverance Rover Mission official website for more information about the mission’s current state, such as photos, videos, and even sounds of Mars!
5) Mars Has No Rings
Space exploration has had plenty of groundbreaking moments. One such moment was the discovery that Mars does not have rings!
There is a theory that states Mars once did have a ring, but they were destroyed when the solar system was still forming.
This would mean that smaller rocky planets can also have rings, although none of those in our current solar system do.
This is both good and bad news for these small planetary systems because larger ones are more likely to create the phenomenon through their gravity pulling material from other objects inward towards them.
Last Thoughts
“Red” is the new black. The red planet, Mars has been a hot topic for decades now and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
We’ve been able to explore the surface of Mars more than any other planet in our solar system and we still have plenty of unanswered questions!
Don’t get discouraged though – as humans we never know what the future may bring.
As scientists continue to study this reality, new questions arise and are answered. The more we learn about Mars the more amazing it becomes!