Mars

Mars appears as a red, starlike point when seen in the sky. The ancient astronomers named it after the god of war because it was the same colour as blood. When seen through a telescope, Mars reveals its polar ice cape which contain frozen water. Years ago, astronomers thought that Mars may contain intelligent life. We now know that this is not true. Many unmanned spacecraft have visited the planet and sent back photographs. Two have even landed there and looked for signs of life, although they didn't find any. However, they did show us that the surface of Mars is very cold and covered with rocks of all sizes. Mars has many different surface features. There are many craters, mountains and valleys and lofty volcanoes. One of these volcanoes is the largest in the Solar System. It is called Olympus Mons and is over 25 kms (15 miles) high. It is over 700 kms (430 miles) in diameter. Mars has two moons, although both are very small and only a few miles across. They are called Phobos and Deimos and large telescopes are needed to see them. It may be that they are actually minor planets that wandered close to Mars that they ended up in orbit around it.