| Mars |
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| Mars, it's the fourth planet from the sun and the seventh largest (3rd smallest). Its 227, 940, 000 km from the sun. The planet Mars was named after the Roman god of war, probably because of its red colour. Mars has lots of craters and lots of volcanoes, but no evidence that they are active. Mars is called the red planet (hmm wonder why). Want to know something? The word March comes from the name Mars! Although there is still no proof of life on Mars, it is still science fiction writer’s favourite place in the solar system to write about. Mars has two ice caps at its North and South Pole. They shrink and grow as the Mars year goes by. Like Mercury and the moon, Mars doesn't have plate tectonics. Mars is easy to find in the night sky with the naked eye. |
| Mars has an elliptical orbit. Did you know Mars's day is only 1/2 an hour longer then Earths? It is but its year is twice as long! Mars's seasons last longer then Earth's (well duh, its year is longer). Mars’s spring lasts171 Earth days (Earth 93) and its summer is 199 Earth days (Earth 94). Its fall is 171 Earth days (Earth 89) and its winter is 146 Earth days (Earth 89). |
| Mars! |
| Mars’s atmosphere is very different then Earth's for many reasons. It is mostly carbon dioxide (95%) with some nitrogen (3%), and other gases (Argon, oxygen, carbon monoxide, water, neon, krypton, xenon and ozone). Compared to Earth's, Mars's atmosphere is very thin, but its thick enough to have strong winds and dust storms. The highest temperature it can get to on Mars is 20 degrees Celsius, and the coldest is -140! That makes it average temperature -63! |
| Mars has two small moons called Phobos and Deimos. They where named after Mars's (the god of war's) dogs. Deimos is smaller then Phobos, but Phobos is closer to Mars. They both orbit close to Mars though. Both are also heavily cratered. Phobos goes around Mars in less then one of its days! It rises in the west and sets in the east, usually twice a day! Deimos is the opposite; it rises in the east and sets in the west. |
| The surface of Mars! |
| Mars has no known Rings |
| Mars has been known since prehistoric times |
| Mars has been visited by many spacecrafts. The very first one was Mariner 4 in the year 1965. Many more have visited Mars, too much for me to name by the Americans and Russian. The first craft to land on Mars was Mars Pathfinder Lander in 1997. |
| The diameter of Mars is 6, 794km. That’s half the diameter of Earth! The force of gravity at the surface is 1/3 of Earth's. But it is 2 times the diameter and surface gravity of the Moon. |
| Mars has many interesting things on its surface. It has Olympus Moons the tallest mountain in the solar system! It is 24km tall with a base of more then 500-km! Also the Hellar Planita crater is in its Southern Hemisphere, it's 6 km deep and 2000 km in diameter. Valles Marineris is a system of canyons on Mars, which are 4000km long and about 2-7 km deep! |
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| For the face on Mars |
