Fun Facts About Mars

Mars: The Fourth Planet from the Sun

• Mars is a dusty, cold, desert world with a thin atmosphere and experiences seasons, polar ice caps, extinct volcanoes, canyons, and weather.

Mars' Size and Distance from the Sun

• Mars is about half the size of Earth, with a radius of 2,106 miles (3,390 kilometers).
• If Earth were the size of a dime, Mars would be about as big as an aspirin tablet.
• Mars orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 228 million km (142 million miles) or 1.52 astronomical units (AU).

Mars' Rotation and Orbit

• One day on Mars takes a little over 24 hours, with a rotation period of 24.6 hours.
• A year on Mars lasts 687 Earth days, with Martian days called "sols".
• Mars' axis of rotation is tilted 25 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun.

Composition and Atmosphere

• Mars is a rocky planet with a solid surface altered by volcanoes, impacts, winds, crustal movement, and chemical reactions.
• Mars' atmosphere is thin and composed mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2), argon (Ar), nitrogen (N2), and small amounts of oxygen and water vapor.

Moons and Exploration

• Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and no rings.
• Several missions have visited Mars, including flybys, orbiters, and rovers on the surface.
• The first successful Mars mission was the Mariner 4 flyby in 1965.

Potential for Life

• Mars is not currently capable of supporting life as we know it.
• NASA missions have found evidence that Mars was once wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere, billions of years ago.

Mars' Red Color

• Mars is known as the Red Planet due to iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidizing, or rusting, causing the surface and atmosphere to appear red.
• Mars was named by the Romans for their god of war due to its reddish color, reminiscent of blood.