Life on
Facts about Mars:
Mars
Fourth planet from the Sun
Last of the terrestrial planets
and is around 227,940,000 km
from the Sun.
Mars is the site of Olympus
Mon. The Largest Volcano and
second highest known
mountain in the solar system.
1. The planet is named after Mars, the
Roman god of war. It was known to the
ancient Greeks as Ares, their god of war.
This is thought to be because of the blood-
red color of the planet which was also used
by other ancient cultures. Chinese
astronomers call Mars the fire star while
ancient Egyptian priests called it Her
Desher meaning the red one.
2. The landmass of Mars and Earth is very
similar.Despite Mars being just 15% the
volume and 10% the mass of Earth, it
actually has a similar landmass because
water covers about 70% of Earths surface.
The surface gravity of Mars is about 37% the
gravity found on Earth. This means that on
Mars you could in theory jump 3x higher than
you could on Earth.
F-11 Farias Rosalyn P.
8G-Matapat

Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the
second-smallest planet in the Solar System,
after Mercury. Named after the Roman god of
war, it is often referred to as the "Red
Planet because the iron oxide prevalent on its
surface gives it a reddish appearance. Mars is
a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere,
having surface features reminiscent both of
the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys,
deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
Mars can easily be seen from Earth with the
naked eye, as can its reddish coloring.
Its apparent magnitude reaches 2.91,which is
surpassed only by Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, and
the Sun. Optical ground-based telescopes are
typically limited to resolving features about
300 kilometers (190 mi) across when Earth and
Mars are closest because of Earth's
atmosphere.
What Is Mars Like?
Mars is very cold. The average temperature on Mars
is minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit -- way below
freezing. Mars is rocky with canyons, volcanoes
and craters all over it. Red dust covers almost
all of Mars. It has clouds and wind, just as Earth
does. Sometimes the wind blows the red dust into a
dust storm. Tiny dust storms can look like
tornados, and large ones can cover the whole
planet. Mars has about one-third the gravity of
Earth. A rock dropped on Mars would fall slower
than a rock dropped on Earth. Things weigh less on
Mars than they weigh on Earth. A person who weighs
100 pounds on Earth would only weigh about 37
pounds on Mars because of less gravity.
What Has NASA Learned About Mars?
NASA has used both spacecr aft and robots to learn
more about Mars. In 1965, Mariner 4 was the first
NASA spacecraft to get a close look at the planet.
In 1976, Viking 1 and Viking 2 were the first NASA
spacecraft to land on Mars. They took pictures and
explored the planets surface. Since then, more
spacecraft have flown near or landed on
Mars.NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed
on Mars in January 2004. They found evidence that
water once flowed on Mars. Living things need
water to survive. So, any sign of water on Mars
would mean that there could be, or could have
been, life on the planet.
Mars: In Depth
Though details of Mars' surface are difficult to see
from Earth, telescope observations show seasonally
changing features and white patches at the poles.
For decades, people speculated that bright and dark
areas on Mars were patches of vegetation, Mars
was a likely place for advanced life forms, and
water might exist in the polar caps. When the
Mariner 4 spacecraft flew by Mars in 1965,
photographs of a bleak, cratered surface shocked
many - Mars seemed to be a dead planet. Later
missions, however, showed that Mars is a complex
planet and holds many mysteries yet to be solved.
Chief among them is whether Mars ever had the
right conditions to support small life forms called
microbes.
Like Earth, Mars experiences seasons due to the tilt
of its rotational axis. Mars' orbit is about 1.5 times
farther from the sun than Earth's and is slightly
elliptical, so its distance from the sun changes. That
affects the length of Martian seasons, which vary in
length. The polar ice caps on Mars grow and recede
with the seasons. Layered areas near the poles
suggest that the planet's climate has changed more
than once. Volcanism in the highlands and plains
was active more than 3 billion years ago. Some of
the giant shield volcanoes are younger, having
formed between 1 and 2 billion years ago. Mars has
the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus
Mons, as well as a spectacular equatorial canyon
system, Valles Marineris.