The Red Planet

Mars Facts

• A year on Mars is 1.88 Earth years with days being a little longer than 24 hours

• Martian days are called Sols

• Mars is the 4th planet from the sun and is  dusty, cold, and dessert planet with a very thin atmosphere

• Mars is home to the largest volcano in our solar system, Olympus Mons.

• The atmosphere is made up of mostly carbon dioxide, argon, nitrogen, and a small amount of oxygen and water vapor

• Iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust, causing the soil and atmosphere to look red.

  Mars is the only planet we have sent rovers to with currently hosting two rovers (Curiosity and Perseverance), one lander (InSight), and one helicopter (Ingenuity).  

• Mars is smaller than Earth and it would take six of Mars to have the same volume as Earth but based on radius Mars is about half the size of Earth

• The rovers have found evidence that Mars was once a wetter and warmer planet with a thick atmosphere meaning there could have been some form of life.  

• Scientists do not expect to find any life currently living on Mars but instead are searching for signs that there may have once been life

• Mars is the most studied planet and evidence of research of the red planet dates back to ancient Egypt.

• Mars' two small moons Phobos and Diemos might be captured asteroids and are potato shaped because they do not have enough mass for gravity to make them  spherical.