Mars

Mars


Home	Solar System	Sun	Mercury	Venus	Earth	Mars	Jupiter	Saturn	Uranus

Neptune	Dwarf Planet	Comets	Telescope	Asteroids	Meteor		MilkyWay	Moon Phases	Nebulae

Other Solar System		Quasar	Big Bang	Hypothetical Planets			LightYear

Introduction:

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun in our Solar System and is periodically visible to the naked eye. It is also referred as a “Red planet” because it has reddish appearance. The red-orange appearance of the Mars surface is caused by iron (III) oxide.

It’s name given by Romans in honor of their god of war. It is a smaller planet than earth as it is only half (53%) that of Earth, and receives half as much sunlight as Earth. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped.

Do you know/ Interesting facts:

> The name of the month March derives from Mars.

> The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965.

> Mars is the seventh largest planet in our solar system.

> The equatorial radius of Mars is 3,397 km.

> Recently, scientists discovered ice water under the surface of Mars and it has capacity to fill Michigan Lake twice.

> Mars is further away from the sun than Earth. Mars average distance from the sun is 142 million miles while Earth’s average distance from the sun is only 93 million miles.

> The temperature on Mars is much colder than Earth. The average Mars temperature is –87 degrees F with Earth’s average temperature being 57 degrees F.

source: www.EightPlanet.com