Mars
The Red Planet is a nickname for this planet. Mars appears reddish in colour because of the iron oxide (iron rust) in its soil. This planet has rusted. Venus might be Earth's sister planet, but Mars may have more in common with Earth than you might expect; with polar ice caps, deserts, canyons, volcanoes, a coloured sky and a tilt and rotation similar to our own planet.
Mars Stats
Average Distance from Sun: 227.92 million km
Perihelion: 206.62 million km Aphelion: 249.23 million km Mass: 0.11 times Earth Equatorial Diameter: 6792.4 km Polar Diameter: 6752.4 km Volume: 0.15 times Earth Gravity: 0.38 times Earth (3.71 N/kg) Temperature: 35 C to -153 C Rotation: 24.623 hours Revolution: 686.973 Earth days Moons: 2 Type: Terrestrial planet Namesake: Mars was the Roman god of war. His Greek form is Ares. |
Mars Facts
- MARS HAS THE LARGEST MOUNTAIN IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM, an extinct shield volcano called Olympus Mons. It's 27 km high and 624 km in diameter. This means it's over three times higher than Earth's highest mountain (Mount Everest, 8.848 km high)! This volcano has gentle slopes sitting on 6 km high cliffs, so you wouldn't realise you were climbing a huge mountain! The image next to the Mars stats shows Olympus Mons, the volcano on the left side of the planet.
- MARS HAS THE LONGEST CANYON IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. See that line on Mars next to three volcanoes (the ones forming a diagonal line)? That's Valles Marineris, a canyon 4000 km long, 200 km wide and 10 km deep. It's so long that it's almost as long as the United States!
- MARS HAS THE LARGEST DUST STORMS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. The gravity of Mars is so weak that these storms can cover the entire planet!
- MARS MAY HAVE HAD OCEANS, 4 billion years ago. Some features on Mars appear to have been carved out by rivers and bodies of water. Studies show that the entire northern hemisphere of Mars may have been underwater, and astronomers have found saltwater "leaks" on the surface of Mars.
- MARS MAY HAVE HAD A HUGE COLLISION. This means that all the terrestrial planets may have had a big whack in their past. A Pluto-sized object is believed to have slammed into Mars a long time ago, stripping off much of Mars's northern hemisphere. This explains why Mars's northern hemisphere is lower and flatter than its southern hemisphere.
- MARS HAS TWO MOONS: Phobos and Deimos. They are believed to be asteroids captured by the planet a long time ago. Phobos, named after the Greek god of fear and panic, is getting closer and closer to Mars and will break apart and form a ring in 20-40 million years. Deimos, named after the Greek god of terror and dread, is getting farther and farther from Mars.
- MARS HAS POLAR ICE CAPS. These ice caps are made of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) and water ice.