Mars is known for its rusty red appearance. There is a very thin atmosphere on the Red Planet. The planet is not dull.

Dust storms can grow so large that they cover the entire planet, temperatures can get so cold that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere condenses into snow or frost, and marsquakes are a type of earthquake.

NASA Science says that this little red rock is one of the most explored bodies in the solar system.

It takes a long time to get to Mars.

The Romans christened it after their god of war. The ancient Greeks named the planet after their god of war, Ares.

The Egyptians named the planet "Her Desher", meaning "the red one", while the Chinese called it "the fire star".

Why is Mars called the Red Planet?

Mars has iron-rich minerals in its regolith, which makes it bright rust. The soil of Earth is filled with organic material. The iron minerals oxidize and cause the soil to be red.

Mars' landscape

Liquid water can't be found on the Martian surface for a long time due to the planet's thin atmosphere. Some scientists disagree with the idea that recurring slope lineae may have spurts of briny water flowing on the surface. This desert planet has the same amount of dry land as the rest of the world.

The Red Planet has the highest mountain in the solar system and the longest valley.

The scientists think the marineris formed from the rifting of the crust. The system has as many as 60 canyons. In the central part of the Valles Marineris, there are canyons that stretch as far as 600 km. The large channels emerging from the ends of some canyons suggest that the canyons may have once been filled with water.

One of the biggest volcanoes in the solar system is on Mars. The volcano is large enough to cover New Mexico. The slopes of Olympus Mons were created by eruptions of lava that flowed for long distances before solidifying. Mars has a variety of volcanic landforms, from small, steep-sided cones to enormous plains covered in hardened lava. Minor eruptions could still happen today.

There are variations and eruptions of space volcanoes.

Bird's-eye view of Olympus Mons.

Olympus Mons is the largest known volcano in the solar system. This digital mosaic image of the volcano was captured by NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS)
(opens in new tab)

Liquid water may have flowed across the planet's surface in the past. There are some channels that can be up to 100 km wide and up to 2000 km long. Scientists found that salty water below the surface of Mars could hold a lot of oxygen. The amount of oxygen depends on a number of factors, including temperature and pressure.

Low-lying plains are the norm on Mars. Water that once flowed across the Martian surface is thought to have created the lowest part of the northern plains. The northern hemisphere is mostly located at a lower elevation than the southern one. The birth of Mars may have caused the north and south to be different.

The number of craters on Mars varies greatly from place to place. The southern hemisphere's surface is very old and has many craters, including the planet's largest, 1,400 mile-wide (2,300 km) Hellas Planitia. Some volcanoes have a few craters, which suggests they erupted recently, with the lava covering up old craters. If the impactor hit underground water or ice, some craters have unusual looking debris around them.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express detected a mixture of water and grains under Planum Australe in the year 2000. It is not clear how much regolith is in the water. The water is said to be over 20 km in length. It's underground location is similar to the underground lakes inAntarctica. The Red Planet's Korolev crater was spied by Mars Express late in the year.

Mars' polar caps

The deposits of water ice and dust can be seen from the poles to the latitudes. Over a long period of time, these were deposited by the atmosphere. Caps of water ice that are frozen year-round can be found on top of the layers.

There are additional seasonal caps of frost in the winter. Dry ice is made of carbon dioxide, which has fallen from the atmosphere. Mars thinks air is about 95 percent carbon dioxide. This frost can extend from the poles to the equator in the deepest part of the winter. According to a report in the Journal of Geophysical Research- Planets, the dry ice appears to have a fluffy texture.

Mars' climate

Simulated 3D perspective view of Mars polar cap.

Ice and dust build the Martian polar caps.  (Image credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University, R. Luk)
(opens in new tab)

Mars is much cooler than Earth because it is so far away from the sun. During the winter it can be as low as minus 195 F ( minus 125 C) near the poles and as high as 70 F (20 C) near the equator.

The atmosphere of Mars is about 100 times less dense than Earth's, but it is still thick enough to support weather. The density of the atmosphere is affected by the winter season when carbon dioxide is trapped in the Martian air. Water flowed on the planet's surface in the past due to the thicker atmosphere. The atmosphere of Mars is affected by the solar wind because it does not have a magnetic field. The process is being studied by NASA.

The first definitive detection of carbon-dioxide snow clouds on Mars was made by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Water-ice snow falls from the clouds when the Red Planet is in the sky.

The largest dust storms in the solar system are on Mars. There is a theory as to why the dust storms on Mars are so large. Warm pockets of air flow toward the cold regions. The stronger the winds, the more dust they lift off the ground.

There are serious risks to the robot on the surface of Mars. The Opportunity Mars rover died after being engulfed in a giant storm which blocked sunlight from reaching the robot's solar panels for weeks at a time.

black and white image of wispy clouds in Mars' sky.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover imaged these drifting clouds on May 17, 2019, the 2,410th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, using its black-and-white navigation cameras. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
(opens in new tab)

Mars' orbit

The Red Planet has a longer year because it is farther away from the sun. It takes about 24 hours and 40 minutes for Mars to complete a rotation around its axis, compared to 24 hours for Earth.

The axis of Mars is related to the sun. Like Earth, the amount of sunlight falling on the Red Planet can vary throughout the year.

There are quick facts about Mars.

There is an average distance from the sun. By comparison, Earth has a population of less than 1 million.

The closest solar approach is called perihelion. It was more than twice as much as Earth.

The farthest distance from the sun is 154,900,000miles. 1.638 times the Earth's surface area.

The seasons that Mars experiences are more extreme than Earth's because of the Red Planet's elliptical, oblong shape. When Mars is close to the sun, the southern hemisphere gets a warm summer and a cold winter. The northern hemisphere gets a long, mild summer when Mars is furthest from the sun, while the southern hemisphere gets a long, cold winter.

The Red Planet's axis is not stable because it doesn't have a large moon to help. There have been different climates on the Martian surface. The release of methane into Mars' atmosphere was influenced by the tilt of the planet.

Size, composition and structure

Mars is much smaller than Earth, measuring 6,791 km in diameter. Our home world is about 10% larger than the Red Planet. The mass of a 100 pound person on Mars would be the same as that of a 100 pound person on Earth.

By volume, the atmospheric composition.

The atmosphere of Mars is composed of 95.3% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, 0.11% oxygen and 0.05% carbon monoxide.

The magnetic field is very strong.

The stripping of Mars' atmosphere was caused by the loss of the global magnetic field. There are regions of the planet's crust that can be at least 10 times more strongly magnetized than anything measured on Earth, which may be remnants of an ancient global magnetic field.

The chemical composition has something to do with it.

Mars is likely made of iron, nickel and sulfur. The mantle of Mars is similar to Earth's in that it is composed mostly of peridotite, which is made up of Silicon, Oxygen, Iron and Magnesium. The crust is made of volcanic rock basalt, which is common in the Earth and the moon, although some crustal rocks, especially in the northern hemisphere, may be a type of andesite.

There's an internal structure.

Since touching down near the planet's equator in November, NASA's InSight landers has been studying the interior of Mars. Mission team members are tracking wobbles in Mars' tilt by precisely tracking the landers position on the planet's surface.

Key insights have been revealed by the data. The team estimates that the planet's core is between 1,100 and 1,300 miles wide. The mantle makes up the rest of the planet's non-atmospheric volume, according to InSight's observations.

Earth's core is 7,100 km wide, larger than Mars itself, and its mantle is over 2,000 km thick. The continental and oceanic crusts have an average thickness of about 40 km and 8 km, respectively.

Mars' moons

Asaph Hall discovered the moons of Mars over a week in 1877. Hall almost gave up on his search for a moon of Mars, but his wife encouraged him to keep going. Six days later, he found Phobos. The moons were named after the sons of Ares.

Cratered moon Phobos.

Image of Phobos captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
(opens in new tab)

Phobos and Deimos are made of carbon-rich rock mixed with ice and covered in dust. Since they lack enough gravity to pull themselves into a more circular shape, they are irregularly shaped. The widest Phobos is 27 km and the widest Deimos is 15 km.

There are craters on both Mars moons from meteorites. The moon's largest crater may have been formed by cracks in the grooves on the surface, which may have been caused by the impact. Our moon shows the same face to our parent planet as the two Mars satellites do.

Cratered moon Deimos.

Image of Deimos captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
(opens in new tab)

How Phobos and Deimos were born is not known. There is strong evidence that the moon is a captured asteroid.

Phobos is drawing closer to Mars each century. Within 50 million years, Phobos will either break up or crash into Mars.

Research & exploration

Galileo was the first person to use a telescope. Astronomers found the planet's polar ice caps. Some researchers believed they saw a network of long, straight canals on Mars. These were misinterpreted interpretations of geological features.

Scientists are able to study pieces of Mars without leaving our planet because a number of Martian rocks have fallen to Earth. According to a 1996 study, Allan Hills 84001 may contain tiny fossils and evidence of Mars life. The team behind the famous 1996 study have held firm to their interpretation, even though other researchers have doubts about it.

A study in meteorites found that organic molecule could have formed on Mars through chemical reactions.

The United States launched two robotic spaceships in 1969 and 1964 to observe the Red Planet. There were no signs of life or civilization on Mars when the first missions were sent there. About 80% of the planet was mapped by Mariner 9 in the 70s.

Most of the missions launched by the Soviet Union failed. Dust storms made it impossible to map the surface of Mars 2 and Mars 3. The first successful landing on the Red Planet was made by NASA's Viking 1 lander. Six weeks later, Viking 2 landed in a different region.

The first close-up pictures of the Martian surface were taken by the Vikings. The principal investigator of the Vikings' Labeled Release life-detection experiment maintained that the landers spied evidence of metabolism in the Mars dirt. Levin passed away at the age of 97.

Two NASA craft that were launched in 1996 made it to the Red Planet. The first wheeled rover ever to explore the surface of another planet was named Sojourner.

The Mars Odyssey was launched in 2001 and found a lot of water beneath the surface. Since the probe can't see water any deeper, it's not certain if more water is underneath.

Rocket launching from pad.

The Mars Odyssey launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 7, 2001. (Image credit: NASA)
(opens in new tab)

Mars passed close to Earth in 2003 for the first time in 60,000 years. In 2004, NASA launched two golf-cart-sized rovers, dubbed Opportunity and Spirit, which explored different regions of the Martian surface. Water used to flow on the planet's surface.

They were originally tasked with three months of surface missions. NASA didn't declare Opportunity dead until after the dust storm in mid- 2018).

Phoenix was sent to the far north of Mars. Water ice was confirmed by the robot.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission sent the rover to investigate the potential for life on the red planet. After landing in the Red Planet's Gale Crater, the car-sized robot determined that there was a lake-and-stream system that existed in the past. Methane concentrations in the atmosphere have been documented.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at Mars in 2006 and the MAVEN arrived in the same year. Mars Express is one of the two spaceships that the European Space Agency has.

India's Mars Orbiter Mission reached the Red Planet in September of 2014).

There is a craft on the surface of Mars. The internal structure and composition of Mars is being investigated by InSight.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie over a rock nicknamed

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie over a rock nicknamed "Rochette," on Sept. 10, 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
(opens in new tab)

The Perseverance rover was launched by NASA. Perseverance and Ingenuity were the two technologies that landed on the floor of Mars' Jezero crater.

Ingenuity made more than a dozen flights on Mars, showing that it is possible to fly over the planet. After documenting the chopper's early flights, Perseverance began focusing on its own science mission. A cache of samples collected by the big rover will be brought back to Earth by a joint NASA-ESA campaign.

In July 2020 there was the launch of the United Arab Emirates' first Mars mission called Hope. The Hope mission is studying the atmosphere, weather and climate of Mars.

The landers-rover duo reached Mars in February 2021. In May, the landed element came down. After rolling down the landing platform's ramp, the rover, called Zhurong, began to explore the Martian surface.

A Mars rover is being worked on by the European Space Agency and Russia. The liftoff of the robot, named Rosalind Franklin, was delayed due to a number of issues. Mars and Earth align for interplanetary missions only once a year. Franklin will look for evidence of past Mars life. The robot will drill a hole in the Red Planet to collect soil samples.

Lost missions to Mars

Mars is hard to reach. NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency, China, Japan, and the Soviet Union were all involved in the exploration of the Red Planet. Notable examples are not limited to.

The Mars Observer was created by NASA.

Russia's Mars 96.

NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter was launched in 1998.

NASA's Mars polar glider was launched in 1999.

The Beagle 2 landers were manufactured by the European Space Agency.

The Fobus-Grunt mission to Phobos was launched in 2011.

2016 was the year that the Schiaparelli test landers was launched.

Future human missions

There are other people getting tickets to Mars. A group of scientists have decided that a NASA-led manned mission to Mars should happen by the year 2030.

The Trump administration ordered NASA to send people to the moon before going to Mars. The goal is to establish a long-term human presence on and around the moon by the late 2020s. The lessons and skills learned from this lunar effort will help pave the way for boots on Mars.

There have been many successful robotic missions to the Red Planet in the past few decades. It would take at least six months for people to go to Mars. The effects of deep-space radiation on the human body are devastating. After a long time in microgravity, performing activities on Mars could be very difficult. Microgravity research is continuing on the International Space Station.

There are other entities with crewed Mars ambitions. China and Russia have said they want to send humans to the Red Planet.

In the past, Musk has said that he established the company back in 2002 to help mankind settle the Red Planet. Musk believes that the breakthrough needed to get people to Mars is in the form of a fully re-usable deep-space transportation system.

Additional resources

You can explore Mars in more detail with NASA. The National Weather Service has more information about the climate of Mars. Send your name to NASA so they can send you to Mars.

Bibliography

There is a space agency called NASA. There's a fact sheet about Mars. There is a space agency called NASA. On July 11, 2002, from www.nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/fact sheet/marsfact.html.

There is a space agency called NASA. There's a planet called Mars. There is a space agency called NASA. On July 11, 2002, from www.solar system.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/.

There is a space agency called NASA. NASA is going to explore Mars. There is a space agency called NASA. There is a new tab at the bottom of the page.

There is a space agency called NASA. Your name should be sent to Mars. There is a space agency called NASA. From www.mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/future.

The Department of Commerce is located in the United States. The national weather service is available. There is a new tab on the www.weather.gov/fsd/mars page.