Mars

The Red Planet

Planet Composition/Size

• Composition– composed primarily of basalt– much of the surface is deeply

covered by a fine iron oxide dust that has the consistency of talcum powder

• gives Mars its red color

• Size– Mars has approximately half the

radius of Earth and only one-tenth the mass

– its surface area is only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land

Moons

• Mars has two small satellites– Phobos– Deimos

Phobos

Deimos

Revolution/Rotation

• A solar day on Mars is 24 hours and 39 minutes long.

• A Martian year is 1 year, 320 days, and 18.2 hours.

Temperatures

• Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about −140 °C (-220 °F) during the polar winters to highs of up to 20 °C (68 °F) in summers.

• Mars also has the largest dust storms in the Solar System.– can vary from a storm over a small area, to

gigantic storms that cover the entire planet – tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun

Distance from Sun

• Mars is one of the inner, or terrestrial, planets.

• It is the fourth planet from the sun.

• Mars’ average distance from the Sun is roughly 230 million km.

Surface Features

• Mars is red in appearance

• The surface of Mars is very rocky.

• It is a mountainous planet.

• The volcano, Olympus Mons, is the highest mountain in the solar system. Olympus Mons

Interesting Facts

• Face on Mars– This image, showing what looks to be a

human face and other features of the Cydonia region on the Martian surface, was produced using data from NASA's Viking 1 orbiter in 1976.

Resources

• Wikipedia– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars

• The Nine Planets– http://www.nineplanets.org/