Interesting Information On The Planet Mars

Welcome back my fellow learners, today we are going to learn some interesting facts on the Red Planet known as Mars.

Mars, named after the Roman god of war is the fourth planet from the Sun. Often referred to as the Red Planet because of its red appearance. Mars has a thin atmosphere, and is a terrestrial planet, composed mainly of carbon dioxide.

Profile

Size: 641,693,000,000,000 billion kg
Diameter: 6,805
Polar Diameter: 6,755
Circumference: 21,297 km
Moons: 2
Visible Moons: Phobos & Deimos
Distance: 227,943,824 km
Orbit Period: 686.98 Earth days
Temperature: -87 to -5 °C
First Recorded By: Egyptian astronomers

Information on Mars

Mars and the Planet Earth have around the same landmass, even though Mars only has 15% of the the Planet Earth’s volume, and a little over 10% of the Planet Earth’s mass, about two thirds of the Planet Earth’s surface is water. Mars gravity is only 37% of that of the Planets Earth’s, which means you could leap three times higher when on Mars.

Mars houses the tallest mountain in the whole solar system.

Olympus Mons, a volcano, is 600km in diameter, and 21km in height. Despite having be around for billions of years, evidence of volcanic activity is recent, and some scientists think it is still active.

Out of all the missions to Mars, only 16 have been successful.

Since the first, USSR’s missions was launched in1960. Europe’s Mars program, which is scheduled to leave in 2016, plans to search for possible life on Mars, and to study the surface, take note of any potential hazards for future launches and start preparations for a return flight.