The Martian also known as Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere (less than 1% that of Earth's), and has a crust primarily composed of elements similar to Earth's crust, as well as a core made of iron and nickel. Mars has surface features such as impact craters, valleys, dunes, and polar ice caps. Mars is less than 56 million km (35 million miles) from Earth at its closest approach, b
ut it recedes to almost 400 million km (250 million miles) when the two planets are on opposite sides of the solar system. Mars is the second smallest planet in the solar system, only larger than Mercury and slightly more than half the size of Earth. It has an equatorial radius of 3,396 km (2,110 miles) and a mean polar radius of 3,379 km (2,100 miles). What do Mars and Earth have in common? Mars is similar to Earth in many ways. Like Earth, it has clouds, winds, a roughly 24-hour day, seasonal weather patterns, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons, and other familiar features. There are clues that billions of years ago Mars was even more like Earth, with a denser, warmer atmosphere, rivers, lakes, flood channels, and perhaps oceans. What is the temperature on Mars? The characteristic temperature on Mars in the lower atmosphere is about 200 kelvins (K; −100 °F, −70 °C), which is generally colder than the average daytime surface temperature of 250 K (−10 °F, −20 °C). In the summer daytime temperatures can peak at about 290 K (62 °F, 17 °C). When did Viking 1 and Viking 2 land on Mars? The Viking landers are two robotic U.S. spacecraft launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the study of the planet Mars. Viking 1 landed in the region of Chryse Planitia (22° N, 48° W) on July 20, 1976, and Viking 2 landed 6,500 km (4,000 miles) away in Utopia Planitia (48° N, 226° W) several weeks later on September 3. Should humans colonize space on Mars? Space colonization, on Mars or elsewhere, is widely debated. Some argue humans have a moral duty to save our species from extinction, and space colonization is one way of doing so. Others argue that living in space is science fiction and that we should concentrate on improving life on Earth instead of potentially ruining another planet or moon. For more on the debate about colonizing space, visit ProCon.org. Mars, fourth planet in the solar system in order of distance from the Sun and seventh in size and mass. It is a periodically conspicuous reddish object in the night sky. Mars is designated by the symbol ♂. Sometimes called the Red Planet, Mars has long been associated with warfare and slaughter. It is named for the Roman god of war. As long as 3,000 years ago, Babylonian astronomer-astrologers called the planet Nergal for their god of death and pestilence. The planet’s two moons, Phobos (Greek: “Fear”) and Deimos (“Terror”), were named for two of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite (the counterparts of Mars and Venus, respectively, in Greek mythology). Planetary data for Mars
*Time required for the planet to return to the same position in the sky relative to the Sun as seen from Earth. mean distance from Sun 227,943,824 km (1.5 AU)
eccentricity of orbit 0.093
inclination of orbit to ecliptic 1.85°
Martian year (sidereal period of revolution) 686.98 Earth days
visual magnitude at mean opposition −2.01
mean synodic period* 779.94 Earth days
mean orbital velocity 24.1 km/sec
equatorial radius 3,396.2 km
north polar radius 3,376.2 km
south polar radius 3,382.6 km
surface area 1.44 × 108 km2
mass 6.417 × 1023 kg
mean density 3.93 g/cm3
mean surface gravity 371 cm/sec2
escape velocity 5.03 km/sec
rotation period (Martian sidereal day) 24 hr 37 min 22.663 sec
Martian mean solar day (sol) 24 hr 39 min 36 sec
inclination of equator to orbit 25.2°
mean surface temperature 210 K (−82 °F, −63 °C)
typical surface pressure 0.006 bar
number of known moons 2
In recent times Mars has intrigued people for more-substantial reasons than its baleful appearance. The planet is the second closest to Earth, after Venus, and it is usually easy to observe in the night sky because its orbit lies outside Earth’s. It is also the only planet whose solid surface and atmospheric phenomena can be seen in telescopes from Earth. Centuries of assiduous studies by earthbound observers, extended by spacecraft observations since the 1960s, have revealed that Mars is similar to Earth in many ways. Like Earth, Mars has clouds, winds, a roughly 24-hour day, seasonal weather patterns, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons, and other familiar features. There are intriguing clues that billions of years ago Mars was even more Earth-like than today, with a denser, warmer atmosphere and much more water—rivers, lakes, flood channels, and perhaps oceans. By all indications Mars is now a sterile frozen desert. However, close-up images of dark streaks on the slopes of some craters during Martian spring and summer suggest that at least small amounts of water may flow seasonally on the planet’s surface, and radar reflections from a possible lake under the south polar cap suggest that water may still exist as a liquid in protected areas below the surface. The presence of water on Mars is considered a critical issue because life as it is presently understood cannot exist without water. If microscopic life-forms ever did originate on Mars, there remains a chance, albeit a remote one, that they may yet survive in these hidden watery niches. In 1996 a team of scientists reported what they concluded to be evidence for ancient microbial life in a piece of meteorite that had come from Mars, but most scientists have disputed their interpretation. Since at least the end of the 19th century, Mars has been considered the most hospitable place in the solar system beyond Earth both for indigenous life and for human exploration and habitation. At that time, speculation was rife that the so-called canals of Mars—complex systems of long, straight surface lines that very few astronomers had claimed to see in telescopic observations—were the creations of intelligent beings. Seasonal changes in the planet’s appearance, attributed to the spread and retreat of vegetation, added further to the purported evidence for biological activity. Although the canals later proved to be illusory and the seasonal changes geologic rather than biological, scientific and public interest in the possibility of Martian life and in exploration of the planet has not faded. Britannica Quiz
Planets and the Earth’s Moon
During the past century Mars has taken on a special place in popular culture. It has served as inspiration for generations of fiction writers from H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs in the heyday of the Martian canals to Ray Bradbury in the 1950s and Kim Stanley Robinson in the ’90s. Mars has also been a central theme in radio, television, and film, perhaps the most notorious case being Orson Welles’s radio-play production of H.G. Wells’s novel War of the Worlds, which convinced thousands of unwitting listeners on the evening of October 30, 1938, that beings from Mars were invading Earth. The planet’s mystique and many real mysteries remain a stimulus to both scientific inquiry and human imagination to this day.
