| Interesting Facts about Mars | |
| Mass | .6419 x 1024 |
| Volume | 16.318 x 1010 kg3 |
| Equatorial Radius | 3397 km |
| Rotation Period | 24.622 hours |
| Surface Gravity | 3.69 m/s2 |
Are there any Martians on Mars? Many scientists don't believe so, but some argue there could be a possibility of life, but not complex, just microorganisms. Even though there may not be any life on Mars, it is the most similar planet to earth. Mars also completes one rotation in 24 hours. To be exactly, Mars completes one rotation in 24.6 hours. It axis is tilted 25.2°, while earth's is 23.5°. Mars also has seasons similar to ones on earth. It is believed that Mars once had channels with flowing liquid as seen by radar images taken by spacecraft that explored mars. Mars also has an atmosphere with clouds and weather patterns.
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As shown by the pictures taken by the Mars Pathfinder, as water ice clouds cover the sky, the sky takes on a more bluish cast. This is because small particles (perhaps a tenth the size of the Martian dust, or one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair) are bright in blue light, but almost invisible in red light. Thus, scientists expect that the ice particles in the clouds are very small. |
Mars is also very different from earth. Mars' orbit is much more elliptical than earth's. As a matter of fact, Mars' orbit is the third most elliptical. The distance between aphelion and perihelion is over 26 million miles (46million km) apart. Earth's difference between aphelion and perihelion is only 3 million miles (5 million km).
The temperatures on Mars also fluctuate greatly. In the winter, it gets as cold as -193°F (-125°C and during the summer, the temperatures reach on 72°F (22°C). Unlike Earth's atmosphere, Mars' atmosphere is made up of 95.3% carbon dioxide and only 0.2% oxygen.
Mars is also filled with volcanoes. It is believed that the volcanoes located on Mars' Tharsis region may be the largest in the entire solar system. The Olympus Mons is over 375 miles (600km) across and over 16 miles (26km) high.
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This is a closeup of one of Mar's best known feature, and largest volcano, Olympus Mons |
The Exploration of Mars
The Soviet spacecraft called Mars 1 was the first to fly by Mars but it did not return any useful data. The Mariner 4 of United States flew by and managed to send 22 black and white pictures back. The Mariner 6 managed to send back pictures of the barren landscapes on Mars. The Mariner 9 was the first successful spacecraft to accurately depict Mars. Americans also managed to land three probes on Mars. The first was the Viking 1 that landed on Mars on July 20, 1976. The Viking 2 also landed successfully in September 1976. No signs of life were found and pictures of a rock covered surface were sent back.
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This image was taken by the Viking 2
of the Inca City. |
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This is also an image taken by the
Viking 2, this is a |
One of America's most successful and cheapest landings on Mars occurred in 1997 in the Mars Pathfinder mission. The Pathfinder craft entered the atmosphere of Mars, deployed its parachute and inflated a protective shield of airbags and bounced "gently" onto the surface of Mars. Its first radio transmission from Mars was at 4:35am (solar time) on July 4, 1997. Over 2.3 billion bits of information were returned from the Pathfinder. The rover Sojourner emerged from the Pathfinder and roamed over 200 square meters of Mar's surface. Successful experiments were conducted with the Alpha Proton x-ray Spectrometer and the contents of the rocks on Mars were discovered to be rich in silicon which classifies them as andesites. Meteorological data was also collected from the Pathfinder.
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The next three pictures were all taken by the Mars Pathfinder. The rocks Squid, Ender, Hassock, and a portion of Wedge are visible in the center-right portion of the mosaic. Mermaid Dune and Bosco rock are visible in the middle-left. The rim of the impact crater "Big Crater" is visible in the upper-left on the horizon. |
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The blue color near the Sun is not caused by clouds of water ice, but by the Martian dust itself. The dust in the atmosphere absorbs blue light, giving the sky its red color, but it also scatters some of the blue light into the area just around the Sun because of its size. The blue color only becomes apparent near sunrise and sunset, when the light has to pass through the largest amount of dust. The color of the Sun itself is not right -- the Sun was over exposed in each of the 3 color images that were used to make this picture. The true color of the Sun itself may be near white or slightly bluish. |
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Here is another picture as taken by the Mars Pathfinder of the surface of the Planet |
Click Here For more Pictures and Movies of Mars
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Click Here For the TRUTH of the FACE ON MARS
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Mars' Moons:
Mars has two of its own moons, Phobos and Deimos. They are not perfectly spherical and are shaped irregularly. They are also extremely small. Phobos only has a diameter of 13 miles (21km) and Deimos' diameter is only 7 miles (12km). Due to their size and the fact that they are covered with dust particles, it is likely that they were once asteroids captured by Mars' gravity and forced them into orbit around Mars.
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Image of Phobos taken by Viking 1 during one of its flybys |
Image of Deimos taken by Viking 1 |
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