All About Mars

All About Mars

Named after the Roman God of war, and sitting between Earth and Jupiter, Mars is an interesting planet. VideoJug provides you with lots on information on this intriguing planet Mars.

Mars, the red planet was so called after the Roman god of war.

Mars is the fourth planet out from the Sun. It sits between Earth and Jupiter. Between 206 and 250 million km from the Sun.

It is a small world about half the size of Earth.

1 year on Mars lasts just less than 2 Earth years and a day lasts for about the same length as on earth, just over 24hrs.

Mars has a very thin atmosphere made mainly of carbon dioxide.

It suffers from very high winds that can blow up huge sandstorms which cover the whole planet.

At the North and South poles there are ice caps of frozen carbon dioxide.

These ice caps grow and shrink throughout the Martian year. Mars has seasons, but they lasts for 6 months each.

The temperature on the surface varies from -140? in winter, to a very pleasant 20? during the Summer.

Since the late 19th and early 20th century it was believed that there would be life on Mars and that a Martian invasion was imminent. This belief came about through a translation error by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli during the opposition of 1877 when Mars was at its closest to Earth.

The best telescope views of Mars at the time appeared to show areas of vegetation, and Schiaparelli claimed to have seen 'canali' crisscrossing the surface. This canali was translated into English not as 'channels' but as 'canals'. And so the Martian canals were born.

But unfortunately since 1964 many probes have visited Mars and it has been found to be a very dry inhospitable place.

In 1975, NASA's Viking lander sent back the first real pictures of the surface.

Since 1975 Mars has been almost continually visited by probes. These probes tend to land on the surface first by using parachutes to slow them down and then by inflating balloons so that they can bounce to a standstill.

In 2003, NASA launched two remote controlled rovers called Spirit and Opportunity. These rovers have been busily exploring the surface and sending back masses of information.

The surface of Mars is coloured red. This is due to iron oxide (commonly known as rust) covering the surface. It has the consistency of talcum powder.

It is this dust that blows around during the sandstorms. 'Dust devils' have been seen blowing across the Martian surface.

There are giant dormant volcanoes. The largest mountain in the solar system belongs to Olympus Mons all 26km high. Mount Everest is not quite 9km high.

Mars has two tiny ‘potato shaped' Moons, Phobos and Deimos. Phobos is 27km long while Deimos is only about 15km.

Phobos goes around Mars in just over 11 hours while Deimos takes 2½ days.

Because Phobos is so close to Mars, it is gradually getting closer and in about 5 million years it will crash into the surface.

Scientists hope to be sending manned missions to Mars after recent satellite images showed traces of recent water flows.

In 1997, a meteorite that had come from Mars was found in the Antarctic ice on Earth. Under microscopic examination, what appeared to be tiny worms were discovered inside the rock.

Could these be fossilized Martians?

So, still Mars remains a mystery.