MARS Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Escuela Nacional Preparatoria Nº8 Miguel E. Schulz Team by: Sánchez Jaime Ángel Abraham Vázquez Barrera Luis Miguel Vázquez Rodríguez Santiago Group:602 Advisor: De León Zamora Josefina Rosalinda

MARS Mars is the fourth planet in distance from the Sun and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Named after the Roman War God, it is often described as the "Red Planet" because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance. The Romans copied the ancient Greeks, who also named the planet after their War God, Ares. Other civilizations also typically gave the planet names based on its color — for example, the Egyptians named it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one,“; while ancient Chinese astronomers named it "the fire star."

The cold and thin atmosphere means liquid water cannot exist on the Martian surface for a long time. This means that although this lonely planet is just half Earth’s, it has the same amount of dry land.

GEOLOGY A recent discovery by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft of large areas of magnetic materials on Mars indicates that the planet once had a magnetic field, much like Earth does today. Because magnetic fields in general act to shield planets from many forms of cosmic radiation, this discovery has important implications for the prospects for finding evidence of past life on the Martian surface. Study of the ancient magnetic field also provides important information about the interior structure, temperature and composition of Mars in the past. The presence of magnetic fields also suggests that Mars was once a more dynamic Earth-like planet than it is today.

Mars has the largest volcanoes in the solar system, including Olympus Mount, which has about 370 miles (600 km) in diameter, wide enough to cover the entire state of New Mexico.

Many regions of Mars are flat, low-lying plains. The lowest of the northern plains are among the flattest, smoothest places in the solar system, potentially created by water that once flowed across the Martian surface.

POLAR CAPS The planet Mars has two permanent polar ice caps. During a pole's winter, it lies in continuous darkness, chilling the surface and causing the deposition of 25–30% of the atmosphere into slabs of CO2 ice (dry ice). When the poles are again exposed to sunlight, the frozen CO2 sublimes, creating enormous winds that sweep off the poles as fast as 400 km/h.

CLIMATE The current Martian climate is regulated by seasonal changes of the carbon dioxide ice caps, the movement of large amounts of dust by the atmosphere and the exchange of water vapor between the surface and the atmosphere. One of the most dynamic weather patterns on Mars is the generation of dust storms that generally occur in the southern spring and summer. These storms can grow to encompass the whole planet. Understanding how these storms develop and grow is one goal of future climatic studies.

ORBITAL CHARACTERISTICS The axis of Mars, like Earth's, is tilted with relation to the sun. This means that like Earth, the amount of sunlight falling on certain parts of the planet can vary widely during the year, giving Mars seasons.

COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE

THE MOONS OF MARS The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall over the course of a week in Hall had almost given up his search for a moon of Mars, but his wife, Angelina, urged him on — he discovered Deimos the next night, and Phobos six days after that. He named the moons after the sons of the Greek war god Ares — Phobos means "fear," while Deimos means "rout."

Conclussion Mars is a very interesting planet that has always intrigue human, since the Ancient Egyptians or Chinese civilizations. It´s likely that Mars have harbored life in a part of its history, nut we will never know that until we can travel time (never).