Are you curious to learn some weird and wonderful facts about Mars?
If so, excellent! You are in exactly the right place my friend…
It’s time to chat about Mars facts.
Let’s dive right in…
Facts About Mars
1 – Mars is the fourth planet from the sun.
2 – It has a day that lasts 24 hours and 39 minutes long but a year on Mars is almost twice as long, -687 Earth days,because it takes longer than Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun.
3 – The average temperature on mars is -81 degrees Fahrenheit (-63 Celsius).
4 – There are no plants or animals living on Mars, but there was once water.
5 – Scientists believe that life could exist in some of the warmer parts of Mars, such as near volcanoes or under ice sheets.
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6 – If you wanted to go to Mars, it would take about six months using NASA’s fastest rocket ship called Orion.
7 – It has a thin atmosphere made up of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
8 – There are two polar ice caps on Mars, one at each pole. The north polar ice cap is covered with water-ice, but it’s not liquid like Earth’s oceans because of Mars’ lower atmospheric pressure.
9 – The south polar ice cap is mainly dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) which can’t form a sea because there isn’t enough atmospheric pressure to keep it from turning into gas when heated by the sun.
10 – As well as having an atmosphere and landforms similar to Earth’s, such as volcanoes and valleys, Mars also has some unique features including broad channels that were carved out by ancient rivers billions of years ago.
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11 -Mars is named after the Roman god of war.
12 – Its surface is covered in craters, canyons, dunes, valleys, volcanoes and ice caps. Scientists have discovered evidence of liquid water on mars’ surface – which means we might find life or even go there one day! Water may be present in liquid form below the surface of mars, but scientists cannot confirm this yet because they need to drill down more than 10 miles for a sample.
13 – There are six moons orbiting around it, including Phobos and Deimos.
14 – The first spacecraft to fly by Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965.
15 – It takes roughly 6 months to travel to mars by spacecraft.
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16 – There are many craters on the surface because asteroids have hit it in the past.
17 – There are also canyons and valleys on mars just like there are here on earth!
18 – Temperatures can reach up to 70 degrees Celsius at night, but drop down to -150 degrees Celsius during winter months.
19 – Mars is about half the size of earth and has a diameter of 6,792 km (4,220 miles).
20 – Vast sand dunes cover much of the surface of Mars. There are many craters on the surface of mars from asteroid impacts and meteorites. Volcanoes exist on Mars too!
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21 – The most obvious feature on Mars’ surface is Olympus Mons which was formed by volcanic activity over millions years ago.
22 – Phobos is predicted to suffer a collision with Mars at some point in the future.
24 – Out of the 40 missions that have been attempted to Mars, only 18 have been successful.
25 – Due to low temperatures, large sheets of ice have formed over the north and south poles on Mars. This ice cover is around 26 ft or 8 meters thick and about 384 thousand cubic miles (1.6 million cubic km) of ice.
