Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

 Known to Babylonians 3,600 years ago as “Star that Wandered”  The Greeks referred to it as “Ares” the god of War  Romans called it Mars

Image Courtesy of NASA

 Distance from Sun ≈1.52 times as far as Earth  Time to Orbit the Sun ~ 26 Earth months  Atmosphere ~ Mostly carbon dioxide  Martian Day ~ 24.7 hours  Temperature on the planet’s surface hardly rises above freezing point

EarthMarsRadius 6378 km 3397 km Density 5515 kg/m kg/m 3 Gravity 9.8 m/s m/s 2 Year days days Eccentricity Day 24 hours 24 hr 39 min Obliquity23.45º25.19º

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

 Surface Color: “Red”  Features  Impact Craters  Largest volcano in the solar system (Olympus Mons)  Largest Canyon in the Solar System (Valles Marineris)  Ancient river channels  Lava Rocks  Dust: Reddish from volcanic rock Valles Marineris Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

 Unbreathable  Thin  Dusty, makes the sky pinkish, lots of dust storms  Surface Pressure: 1/150 th of Earth’s (only 5.6 millibars)  Composition: 95% CO 2, 3% N, 1.5% Ar, 0.1% O 2, 0.03% H 2 O

 Mars has two tiny moons named “Deimos” (Panic) & “Phobos” (Fear)  The moons are irregular and very small in size  Phobos 27x22x18 km  Deimos 15x12x10 km  The moons are probably asteroids captured by Mars DeimosPhobos Image Courtesy of NASA

 Water is the key to life as we know it  The north and south poles of Mars are covered with thick ice or frost  Some astronomers about 100 years ago thought there were canals on Mars dug by intelligent civilization  Space probes to date have not found any traces of canals on Mars

 Viking 1 and 2 in 1976  First pictures of Martian surface Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

 Pathfinder in 1997  Roving vehicle – Sojourner to explore Martian surface Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

 Mars Global Surveyor  Accomplishes all the tasks of its mission  And still going Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

 Discovered subsurface water ice near poles  Track changes of polar ice, clouds and dust storms  Generated maps of radiation and minerals Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

 Spirit  Landed January 3, 2004  Opportunity  Landed January 24, 2004 Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Pictured: An Ancient Martian?

Unusual Gullies and Channels on Mars

Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars

A Face On Mars

Close-up of the Face on Mars

Earth Rise