Mars is also known as the 'Red Planet' of our solar system. It is no place for the faint-hearted. Arid, rocky, cold, and seemingly lifeless, this Red Planet offers a very few hospitalities. Fans of extreme sports can rejoice, however, the Red Planet will challenge even the hardiest souls among us. Home to the largest volcano in the solar system, the deepest canyon, and crazy weather and temperature patterns, Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. Mars falls in a zone which is called the habitable zone. It is the zone in which the light of the sun star is such that water can exist in solid, liquid and gaseous forms.
Mariner 4 launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Organisation (NASA) was the first aircraft to reach Mars.
When the solar system settled into its current layout about 4.5 billion years ago, Mars formed when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become the fourth planet from the Sun. Mars is about half the size of Earth, and like its fellow terrestrial planets, it has a central core, a rocky mantle, and a solid crust.
Mars has a dense core at its centre between 1,500 to 2,100 kilometres in radius. Which is made of iron, nickel, and sulphur. Surrounding the core is a rocky mantle between 1,240 to 1,880 kilometres thick, and above that is a crust made of iron, magnesium, aluminium, calcium, and potassium. This crust is between 10 to 50 kilometres deep.
The Red Planet doesn’t just look like the boring old red but is also full of vibrant colours. On the surface, we can see colours such as brown, gold, and tan. Mars appears reddish due to the oxidation or rusting of iron in the rocks, regolith, and dust on the surface of Mars. This dust gets kicked up into the atmosphere and from a distance makes the planet appear mostly red. This happens because of strong winds on the surface due to a result of solar winds.
Every winter, a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) forms on the surface of Mars. At its greatest extent in mid-winter, this frost reaches from the poles down to the middle latitudes, until it is too warm and sunny to persist. In most places, this occurs around 50 degrees latitude, similar to the latitude of southern Canada on Earth.
However, small patches of dry ice are found closer to the equator on pole-facing slopes, which are colder because they receive less sunlight. An image was taken in the middle of winter in Mars' Southern Hemisphere, which showed a crater near 37 degrees south latitude. The south-facing slope has patchy bright frost, blue in enhanced colour.
Interestingly, while Mars is about half the diameter of Earth, its surface has nearly the same area as Earth’s dry land. Its volcanoes, impact craters, crustal movement, and atmospheric conditions such as dust storms have altered the landscape of Mars over many years, creating some of the solar system's most interesting topographical features.
A large canyon system called Valles Marineris is long enough to stretch from California to New York – more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometres). The Martian canyon is 200 miles (320 kilometres) at its widest and 4.3 miles (7 kilometres) at its deepest. That's about 10 times the size of Earth's Grand Canyon!
Mars was named by the ancient Romans based on their god of war because its reddish colour was reminiscent of blood. Other civilizations also named the planet for this attribute – for example, the Egyptians called it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one." Even today, it is frequently called the "Red Planet" because iron minerals on the Martian land oxidise, or rust, causing the surface to look red.
Mars has a thin atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon gases. To our eyes, the sky would be hazy and red because of suspended dust instead of the familiar blue tint we see on Earth. Mars' sparse atmosphere doesn't offer much protection from impacts by such objects as meteorites, asteroids, and comets.
The temperature on Mars can be as high as 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) or as low as about -225 degrees Fahrenheit (-153 degrees Celsius). And because the atmosphere is so thin, heat from the Sun easily escapes this planet. If you were to stand on the surface of Mars on the equator at noon, it would feel like spring at your feet (75 degrees Fahrenheit or 24 degrees Celsius) and winter at your head (32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius).
Occasionally, winds on Mars are strong enough to create dust storms that cover much of the planet. After such storms, it can take months before all of the dust settles.
Mars has no global magnetic field today, but areas of the Martian crust in the southern hemisphere are highly magnetised, indicating traces of a magnetic field from 4 billion years ago.
Mars has a radius of 2106 miles. On average the distance between Mars and the Sun is 1.5 Astronomical units. It completes one rotation in 24.6 hours, very similar to one day on Earth which is 23.9 hours. A year on Mars is 669.6 solar days which is equal to 687 Earth days. Its axis is at an angle of 25 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun.
Mars has distinct seasons, but they last longer than seasons here on Earth since Mars takes longer to orbit the Sun due to its larger distance. Unlike Earth which has evenly distributed seasons, on Mars, the seasons vary in length because of Mars' elliptical, egg-shaped orbit around the Sun.
When spring is experienced in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere, the longest season of 194 solar days is experienced. When the northern hemisphere experiences autumn and the southern hemisphere experiences spring, the shortest season is experienced for 142 martian solar days.
Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, that may be captured asteroids. They're potato-shaped because they have very little mass for gravity to make them spherical. The moons get their names from the horses that pulled the chariot of the Greek god of war, Ares.
Phobos, the innermost and larger moon, is heavily cratered, with deep grooves on its surface. It is slowly moving towards Mars and will crash into the planet or break apart in about 50 million years. Deimos is about half as big as Phobos. Deimos orbits two and a half times farther away from Mars when compared to Phobos. Oddly-shaped Deimos is covered in loose dirt that often fills the craters on its surface, making it appear smoother than pockmarked Phobos.
Mars has no rings. However, in 50 million years when Phobos crashes into Mars or breaks apart, it could create a dusty ring around the Red Planet.
Scientists don't expect to find life thriving on Mars. Instead, they're looking for signs of life that existed long ago, when Mars was warmer and covered with water.
Scientists still explore and obtain facts that continue to marvel us.
Bibliography:
Barnett, Amanda “Mars- NASA Solar System” Overview/Mars. 17th Mar, 2022. Web. 18th Mar, 2022 <https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/>
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