All The Planets
Mars The day on Mars is slightly longer than an Earth day: 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds. A Martian year is equal to 1.8809 Earth years, or 1 year, 320 days, and 18.2 hours.
What's it made of? Mars is a terrestrial planet. Because we don't see any active volcanoes on the surface, we think Mars today is mostly cold inside.
Atmosphere 95% carbon dioxide 3% nitrogen 1.6% argon Very thin, less than 1% of Earth's
Surface Why is it red? Iron oxide (rust) Rocks everywhere Lots of craters of all sizes The sky is pink - why?
Olympus Mons Tallest known mountain and volcano 27 km high Three times the size of Mt. Everest!
Water Like Earth, Mars' North and South poles are covered in ice There is also ice below the surface, found by Phoenix.
Weather Windy Large dust storms Ice Clouds 27 °C to −143 °C
Moons 2 moons Largest is Phobos (22 km) Other is Deimos (12 km)
Exploration The first successful fly-by mission to Mars was NASA's Mariner 4, launched in 1964. On November 14, 1971 Mariner 9 became the first space probe to orbit another planet when it entered into orbit around Mars. Then came the 1975 NASA launches of the Viking program, which had 2 robots which landed in 1976. Viking 1 remained operational for six years, Viking 2 for three. The Viking landers relayed the first color pictures of Mars.
Rovers 2 twin rovers, “Spirit” and “Opportunity” Landed in 2004 Still working today!
Phoenix Landed May 2008 Found water ice!
History Named for Roman god of war. Chinese: Fire Star