In this article, we will explore interesting facts about the planet Mars. Due to its similar surface color, it is also called the “red planet.” Mars has a very thin atmosphere, and its surface is extremely uneven. Among all the planets in the Solar System, Mars is considered by people to be the most likely to contain or have contained life. Here are some of the most interesting facts about Mars.
Interesting Facts About Mars
- Without a protective spacesuit, the oxygen in the blood of humans or animals would immediately turn into bubbles due to the low pressure. This process would lead to inevitable and instant death.
- Mars has very weak gravity. The gravity on Mars is 37% less than on Earth, which means you could jump three times higher on Mars than on Earth.
- Mars experiences powerful dust storms that can completely cover the planet and continuously change its surface.
- It takes Mars six hundred and eighty-seven Earth days to orbit the Sun and a little more than one Earth day – twenty-four hours and thirty-nine minutes – to complete one rotation on its axis (also see interesting facts about the Sun).
- It takes about a year to reach Mars. The flight to Mars takes about 8 months. If you want to return, it will take the same amount of time.
- Mars has low atmospheric pressure on its surface, so liquid water cannot exist on its surface for long. As a result, water immediately becomes vapor or ice.
- The longest and deepest canyon in the entire Solar System is on Mars – Valles Marineris. It is four thousand five hundred kilometers long, two hundred kilometers wide, and up to eleven kilometers deep.
- The highest mountain in the Solar System – Olympus Mons – is located on Mars. It is over 27.4 km high.
- Mars is the only planet, other than Earth, that has polar ice caps.
- Mars is called the “Red Planet” because it has a high content of iron oxide, which makes it reddish.
- Mars has all four seasons, just like Earth. However, each season on the Red Planet lasts twice as long as on Earth.
- Another interesting fact about Mars – unlike Earth, sunsets on the Red Planet are blue.
- Galileo Galilei observed Mars in 1609 with a simple telescope.
- Mars has no magnetic field, although some scientists believe it had a magnetic field about 4 billion years ago.
- Data from spacecraft indicate that in the distant past, Mars had a full hydrosphere. Water flowed on its surface where there were lakes and oceans. But with climate change, almost all of the hydrosphere disappeared.
- The average temperature on the surface of Mars is -80 degrees Celsius, but temperatures at its poles can drop to -199 degrees.
- Since the Soviet Marsnik-1, which was launched in 1960, there have been 40 orbiters, landers, and rovers sent to Mars, but only 23 of these missions have been successful.
- Mars is the most studied planet in the Solar System (of course, after Earth). Currently, there are two rovers working on the surface of Mars, and five spacecraft are in orbit around it.