Mars

Mars, known as the red planet, is a mysterious place. In the past, humans have made many attempts to find ways of researching Mars. The Martian planet is very similar to Earth. It is one of the nine planets in our solar system.

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is known as the red planet because of its red color. The red color is caused by the presence of iron oxide in its atmosphere. The diameter of Mars is about half the size of Earth's diameter. Mars having a diameter of 6,794 km and Earth having a diameter of 12,756 km. The mass of mars is equal to 11% of Earth's mass. Mars' distance from the sun is 206-249 million km depending on where it is in the solar system. Earth is much closer as it is 147-152 million km from the sun.

Mars' atmosphere is made up of lots of different gases. These include carbon dioxide, nitrogen, argon, oxygen, carbon monoxide, neon, krypton, xenon, and water vapour. Earth's atmosphere is not made up of as many gases since its atmosphere is made up of nitrogen and oxygen.

The temperatures on Mars are extreme as the average temperature is -63oC, whereas Earth's temperature on average is 14oC. Deimos and Phobos are moons of Mars. Deimos is 12 km in diameter and Phobos is 21 km in diameter. The moon is much bigger as it is 3476 km in diameter. Mars' orbit pattern is a more elliptical shape, rather than a round shape. A Martian day, or Sol, is equal to 24 hours and 39 minutes while 1 Earth day is equal to 24 hours. A year on Mars is around twice as long as an Earth year, i.e. Mars takes 687 days while it takes Earth 365 days.

Mars' surface is all rocky. Winds on Mars are strong enough to raise sand storms that can hide the surface from view for weeks at a time. Liquid water does not exist on Mars while water does exist on Earth. The canyons and cracks show that Mars used to flow with water. Desert sand dunes are one of the many features on Mars. As Earth has a north pole and a south pole, Mars also has it. Mars' south polar icecap is much larger than the north polar icecap so the southern winters are considerably longer.

Mars is the second planet having the most highly varied and interesting terrain of all the planets. Large lakes and oceans are thought to have existed on Mars. There is clear evidence of water erosion in old river channels and floodplains. Ancient cratered highlands make up most of the southern hemisphere of Mars. The northern hemisphere consists of plains that have undergone changes since the formation of the planet. The northern hemisphere is also lower in elevation. Mars has polar icecaps at both poles made up mostly of solid carbon dioxide known as dry ice.

Mars is the seventh largest planet. The largest mountain in our solar system, Mount Olympus is on Mars. It is 24 km high and more than 500 km in diameter. The Valles Marineris is a system of canons 4000 km long and2 to 7 km deep. Tharsis is a huge bulge on Mars with a height of 10 km and 4000 km in diameter. Hellas Planetia is an impact crater found in the southern hemisphere and over 6km deep and 2000 km in diameter. Earth's tallest mountain, Mount Everest, is only 8.8 km. Nothing compared to Mount Olympus. Earth's deepest canyon, the Cotahuasi Canyon, is 3 km deep. Mars and Earth are 4.6 billion years old. Mars can get as close to the sun as 200 million km or as faraway as 249 million km. At one time, Mars went in orbit with Earth and got as close as 48.7 million km.

Romans named the planet Mars in honor of their god of war, Ares and because of its red color. In order to survive on Mars, you would need an insulated spacesuit and a supply of oxygen. The first spacecraft to land on Mars was the Mariner 4 in 1965. Many attempts before that ended in failures. There were two Viking Landers in 1976 and a Polar Lander 1999. Mars Lander 2 crash-landed on Mars in 1971 and in the same year, the Mars Lander 3 touched down and started transmitting images back to Earth but failed after 20 seconds. 3 years later, Mars Lander 6 also crash-landed on Mars and Mars Lander 7 missed and flew right past Mars. On August 6, 1996, David Mekay announced the first identification of organic compounds in a Martian meteorite.

The mysterious planet Mars will always be place for humans to study. In the future, humans will still try to research Mars and maybe humans might find ways of living on Mars.