Mars

Quick facts about Mars

Distance from the Sun:

227.9 million km

Mass (Earth =1):

0.012

Density:

3.94g/cm3

Rotational Period:

24.62 hrs

Equatorial Diameter:

6787

# of Satellites:

2

# of Rings:

0

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It has craters, mountains, and valleys deeper and longer than the Grand Canyon. Its surface is covered by orange-red, dusty soil, which is blown from one spot to another by the wind in the very cold, thin atmosphere. The orange-red colour is present due to the iron oxide that is in the soil and rocks. Even though Mars has no liquid water on the surface ice covers its polar caps, some of which is frozen water and some is frozen carbon dioxide.

The way Mars moves makes it, in some ways, similar to the Earth. Mars takes little more than half an hour longer than the Earth to spin around once on its axis, so a Martian day and night are roughly similar in length to ours. Also, Mars is tilted at an angle like the Earth. This means it has seasons. But these last longer than seasons on the Earth, because a year on Mars is almost twice as long as one Earth year.

Mars got its name because it shines with a red colour. The Romans thought of blood and war when they looked at it so they named it Mars after their god of war.

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