1. Mars Basics

2. Size & Distance

3. Smaller than Earth (0.532x) Mars diam ~ 6779 km (4212 miles) Earth diam ~ 12,742 km (7918 miles) 8 Mars would fit inside the Earth! 1.5 AU from the sun (~140 million miles) 0.5 AU from the Earth (~43 million miles) SCALE!!!

4. Scale Using an Earth balloon and Mars balloon to scale: Q: How far away do you think Mars would be? A: ~0.4 miles (0.64 km)

5. Courtyard Marriott Four Points by Sheraton

6. Rotation & Revolution One Martian day (sol) is 24 hours and 37 minutes One Martian year is 687 Earth days, almost two Earth years

7. Seasons Like Earth, Mars tilts This tilt contributes to seasons; orbit also contributes

8. Atmosphere Mars does have an atmosphere, though it is very thin Air pressure at the surface is about 1/100 th the surface pressure on the Earth Earth: 1013mb Mars: 7mb Mostly carbon dioxide, some nitrogen 95% CO 2 2.7% N 2 1.6% Ar 0.13% O 2

9. Mars is Cold! Average temperature is about -80° F Can drop to -195° F near the poles (winter); can reach 70° F near the equator Large day to night (diurnal) temperature variation You can Follow Mars Weather reports from the Curiosity rover here: Mars Weather on Twitter (@MarsWxReport) https://twitter.com/MarsWxReport

10. Polar Caps Northern cap (left) is made of alternating layers of dust and water-ice Southern cap (right) is made of alternating layers of dust and water-ice below, carbon dioxide ice on top

11. Giant Volcanos 400 miles!

12. Valles Marineris

13. An Impact Scarred Surface Argyre Basin 1150 miles!

14. 50 km Ravi Vallis Ancient Floods

15. Streamlined Features

16. Valley Networks 25 km 5 km

17. Phobos and Deimos ~17 MILES 11 M I L E S

18. A Desert World

19. A Geologic Time Machine

20. A Dusty Place Mars Spirit Rover at Gusev Crater Mini-tornados - 20 to 60 mph wind 30 to 300 feet wide, up to 6 miles high