Mars Facts:
- Mars is the 4th planet from the sun in our solar system.
It is approximately 142 million miles from the sun.
- Mars is about 4,212 miles in diameter.
- It takes Mars about 687 Earth days to orbit the sun one time
even though it travels at about the same speed as Earth.
- A day (from sunrise to sunset) on Mars is about 24 hours,
just like Earth.
- Mars's atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide, nitrogen,
argon, and other gases.
- Mars has canyons, craters, and volcanos. It has the
highest peak in solar system. The volcano Olympus mon on Mars is 3 times higher than
Earth's highest mountain, Mt. Everest. Evidence of ice has been discovered on Mars,
but most of Mars is a windy desert terrain.
- At its coldest, Mars can be -190° F. At its hottest,
Mars can be 90° F.
- Mars has 2 satellites, or moons, named Phobos and Deimos.
They are very small satellites. Phobos is only about 13 miles (21 km) in
diameter and Deimos is only about 7.5 miles (12 km) in diameter.
- Mars can be seen without a telescope. It is a reddish
object in the sky. The planet gets its reddish color from rust (iron oxide) in the
surface.
- Mars has been visited by 6 US space missions between 1964 abd
1976. In 1976 two Viking spacecraft landed on the planet and studied the atmosphere
and terrain for several years.
- People have often wondered whether there could be life on
Mars. In 1877 an Italian astronomer named Giovanni Schiaparelli thought that the
craters and channels on the surface of the planet gave proof that beings were attempting
to irrigate a dry planet. Patches of green on the surface also seemed to suggest
that there was plant life on the planet. However, no space mission has ever
uncovered proof of life on Mars. The word "Martian" was developed as
people talked of life on Mars.
- Mars is named after the Roman God of war.
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