MARS

God of War

Last updated:

USA[08/08/19]

NZL[08/08/19]

-[Distance|Orbit|Seasons|Dust Storms]

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and is the second smallest in the Solar System. It is located about 227.9 million km away from the Sun, making it the farthest terrestrial planet. On Mars, the Sun would look half the size of what it would look like on Earth because of its distance. When Mars is orbiting the Sun, it doesn't really take a circular path. In fact, Mars has the least circular orbit path of the eight planets. It also takes Mars a long 687 Earth days to make one trip around the Sun. This may be long for us here on Earth, but other planets like Uranus and Neptunes can take a lot longer. Mars also experiences seasons like Earth. The only difference is that it lasts twice as long. This is due to Mars tilted axis at 25.19 degrees, which is quite similar to Earth at 23.5 degrees. Mar s is also known for its huge dust storms, which are the largest in the Solar System. This is due to the elliptical shape of the planets orbit path around the Sun. The orbit path is more elongated than many of the other planets and this oval-shaped orbit results in fierce dust storms that cover the entire planet and can last for many months.

-[Natural Satellites|Name Origin|Mountains]

Mars has two natural satellites named Phobos and Deimos. Phobos is larger than Deimos but both names are from ancient mythology. Phobos was the Greek god of fear and Deimos, his brother, was the Greek god of terror. Both were sons of Ares and Aphrodite. Mars itself was named after the Roman god of war, which in Greek mythology is Ares, father of Phobos and Deimos. Planets were named after important gods or goddesses. The Romans were great warriors and thought of Mars, the god of war, to be very important. Mars was also a good name because of the planets blood-red color. The two moons of Mars, Phobos, and Deimos were written about in the book 'Gulliver's Travels' by author Jonathan Swift. Phobos and Deimos were discovered 151 years after Johnathan Swifts book. Other civilizations also named the planet for what was once its main distinguishing feature. The Egyptians called it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one," while ancient Chinese astronomers went with "the fire star." Mars is also known for its giant Olympus Mons mountain. This is the largest known mountain in the entire Solar System. It is so tall that it is around three times the height of Earths Mount Everest!

-[New & Old Space Missions]

As of March 2019, there have been 56 unmanned missions to Mars. But not all missions were successful. There are also more rovers on Mars than there are on any other planet in the Solar System[Besides Earth]. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers: MER-A Spirit and MER-B Opportunity-to explore the Martian surface and geology; both landed on Mars at separate locations in January 2004. Both rovers far outlived their planned missions of 90 Martian solar days: MER-A Spirit was active until March 22, 2010, while MER-B Opportunity was active until June 10, 2018, and holds the record for the longest distance driven by any off-Earth wheeled vehicle. No human has ever set foot on Mars or any other celestial body other than the Moon. But SpaceX and NASA plan to change that in the coming years.

-Notes-

Type- Terrestrial

Made of- Iron, nickel, sulfur,(core) silicon, oxygen, iron(mantle) dusty(crust)

Temperature- Winter(-125 C) Summer(20 C)

Diameter- 6,779 km

Mass- 6.39 x 10^23 kg

Distance from Sun- 227.9 million km (varies)

Distance from Earth- 54.6 million km (closest) (varies)

Images below-