People know Mars for a long time. It is called
that way because of its red color- a symbol of fire and blood,
which the God of the war, Mars, brings to mankind. It turned into a
mysterious planet in 1877 when the Italian astronomer Skiapareli
found the “canals” on its surface.The diameter of Mars is 6770 km. Its volume is 7 times smaller and its mass 9 times smaller than these of the Earth are. Its distance to the Sun is between 206 and 249 million kilometers. When the Earth is on a straight line with the Sun and Mars, then there is an opposition of Mars. Every 15 or 17 years the planet comes extremely close to the Earth- 55,5 million km. Such oppositions are called Great and are very favorable for observations of Mars.
Mars makes a full rotation around the Sun for 687 days. The year on this planet is nearly twice as long as the year on the Earth. But the day is almost the same- 24 hours, 37 minutes and 22,58 seconds. Mars has a small, transparent atmosphere, through which a lot of details on its surface can be seen.
Mars is an even planet and has no hills and mountains. Its yellowish and reddish stains called “matrixes” take around ¾ of its surface. The rest are the “seas”- dark gray or greenish stains.
The atmosphere on Mars is very thin, just as is the atmosphere on the Earth at a height of 18-20 km. It consists mainly of nitrogen and carbon dioxide and only a little bit of hydrogen and water vapors. This is a dry planet without any oceans, seas, lakes or rivers. The only more significant accumulations of water are the so called ‘white caps”, which form around the poles of Mars. The climate is very severe with a lot of changes during the day (from +5-10*C to – 10-70 *C).
Two very small satellites rotate around the planet: Fobos (at a distance of 15 km) and Deimos (at a distance of 23 000 km and a diameter of 8 km).
