· If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a nickel, and Mars would be about as big as an aspirin tablet.
· Mars orbits our sun, a star. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun at a distance of about 228 million km (142 million miles) or 1.52 AU.
· One day on Mars takes just a little over 24 hours (the time it takes for Mars to rotate or spin once). Mars makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Martian time) in 687 Earth days.
· Mars is a rocky planet, also known as a terrestrial planet. Mars' solid surface has been altered by volcanoes, impacts, crustal movement, and atmospheric effects such as dust storms.
· Mars has a thin atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2) and argon (Ar).
· Mars has two moons named Phobos and Deimos.
· There are no rings around Mars.
· More than 40 spacecraft have been launched for Mars, from flybys and orbiters to rovers and landers that touched surface of the Red Planet. The first true Mars mission success was Mariner in 1965.
Currently, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity Rovers are on Mars as well as the Phoenix Lander.
· At this time in the planet's history, Mars' surface cannot support life as we know it. A key science goal is determining Mars' past and future potential for life.
· Mars is known as the Red Planet because iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust, causing the soil -- and the dusty atmosphere -- to look red.
· Water on Mars exists today mostly as ice, with a small amount present in the atmosphere as vapor. The Phoenix Lander found water on Mars.
· The Red Planet, as Mars is often called, is the fourth planet from the sun. In a lot of ways, Mars looks a lot like our home, though instead of blue oceans and green land, Mars is home to an ever present red tint. However, when you look past the surface differences, these two planets are similar in a lot of ways. Here are just a few:
· Polar Ice Caps – Mars has both North and South polar ice caps, much like Earth. Also like Earth, both ice caps are made mostly of frozen water. With so much water frozen in the ice caps of Mars, some scientists think that life could have once existed there.
· Length of a Year – Mars is not much farther from the Sun than Earth. As a result, a typical year on Mars is 1 year and 320 days.
· Length of a Day – While a year on Mars might be almost twice as long as a year on Earth, the length of a day there is almost identical. A Martian day is 24 hours and 39 minutes long, less than an hour longer than a day on Earth.
· Seasons – Mars has seasons like Earth too. These seasons are much longer than Earth seasons because Mars is so much farther from the sun. And don’t get your swim suits out just yet – the average high during a Martian summer day is 23 degrees F (-5 degrees C) – not exactly beach weather.
· Mars and Earth are similar in so many ways that it’s almost hard to believe we haven’t found anything alive there. But, don’t forget that there are many differences too. Without these differences, Mars wouldn’t be such an interesting planet to study.
· A lot of planets are bigger than Earth. For example, 318 Earths could fit inside of Jupiter. Mars is not quite so big. In fact, Mars is one of only two planets in the solar system to be significantly smaller than Earth. If you looked at the two planets side by side, Earth would be a basketball while Mars is a softball.
· Mars orbits our sun, a star. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun at a distance of about 228 million km (142 million miles) or 1.52 AU.
· One day on Mars takes just a little over 24 hours (the time it takes for Mars to rotate or spin once). Mars makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Martian time) in 687 Earth days.
· Mars is a rocky planet, also known as a terrestrial planet. Mars' solid surface has been altered by volcanoes, impacts, crustal movement, and atmospheric effects such as dust storms.
· Mars has a thin atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2) and argon (Ar).
· Mars has two moons named Phobos and Deimos.
· There are no rings around Mars.
· More than 40 spacecraft have been launched for Mars, from flybys and orbiters to rovers and landers that touched surface of the Red Planet. The first true Mars mission success was Mariner in 1965.
Currently, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity Rovers are on Mars as well as the Phoenix Lander.
· At this time in the planet's history, Mars' surface cannot support life as we know it. A key science goal is determining Mars' past and future potential for life.
· Mars is known as the Red Planet because iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust, causing the soil -- and the dusty atmosphere -- to look red.
· Water on Mars exists today mostly as ice, with a small amount present in the atmosphere as vapor. The Phoenix Lander found water on Mars.
· The Red Planet, as Mars is often called, is the fourth planet from the sun. In a lot of ways, Mars looks a lot like our home, though instead of blue oceans and green land, Mars is home to an ever present red tint. However, when you look past the surface differences, these two planets are similar in a lot of ways. Here are just a few:
· Polar Ice Caps – Mars has both North and South polar ice caps, much like Earth. Also like Earth, both ice caps are made mostly of frozen water. With so much water frozen in the ice caps of Mars, some scientists think that life could have once existed there.
· Length of a Year – Mars is not much farther from the Sun than Earth. As a result, a typical year on Mars is 1 year and 320 days.
· Length of a Day – While a year on Mars might be almost twice as long as a year on Earth, the length of a day there is almost identical. A Martian day is 24 hours and 39 minutes long, less than an hour longer than a day on Earth.
· Seasons – Mars has seasons like Earth too. These seasons are much longer than Earth seasons because Mars is so much farther from the sun. And don’t get your swim suits out just yet – the average high during a Martian summer day is 23 degrees F (-5 degrees C) – not exactly beach weather.
· Mars and Earth are similar in so many ways that it’s almost hard to believe we haven’t found anything alive there. But, don’t forget that there are many differences too. Without these differences, Mars wouldn’t be such an interesting planet to study.
· A lot of planets are bigger than Earth. For example, 318 Earths could fit inside of Jupiter. Mars is not quite so big. In fact, Mars is one of only two planets in the solar system to be significantly smaller than Earth. If you looked at the two planets side by side, Earth would be a basketball while Mars is a softball.