Top 10 Facts and Info About the Red Planet: Mars

Our vast solar system consist of many planets. Among all of them one planet is surrounded by many mysteries. That planet is Mars. Mars is the fourth planet of our solar system, i.e. from sun. The Romans named it after their God Of War. Many other civilisations also gave name to the planet based on its color. Ancient Chinese named it as "The Fire Star" and Egyptians named it as "Her Desher." Here we'll see some important facts about the planet Mars which is surrounded by lots of mysteries.

Mars
Img Credits: NASA

Top 10 Facts and Info About the Red Planet: Mars

Exploration work is still going on because the core composition of Mars is not yet known. It is expected that the maximum pressure of Mars's core is 4000,000 times the pressure of Earth's atmosphere at sea level. The planet's core is solid or liquid, scientists are not sure about that.

1. It's Chemical composition :-

The crust of Mars is largely made of the volcanic rock basalt. Earth and the Moon, both also have the common crusts as of Mars. The mantle of the Mars is also similar to the Earth.

It is composed of peridotite which is made of magnesium, iron, oxygen and silica. In the northern hemisphere some of the crustal rocks are a form of andesite which is a volcanic rock which contains silica.

2. Internal Structure :-

The Martian core is near about 1,800 and 2,400 miles in diameter (3,000 and 4,000 km). The length of it's mantle is about 900 to 1,200 miles, i.e., 5,400 to 7,200 in kilo meters wide and also it's crust is about 30 miles which means 50 km thick.

Image Credit: NASA

The two spacecraft that were sent by NASA in 1975 on Mars were Viking 1 and Viking 2. Their main objective was to study it's surface and gather important information about it's composition.

3. Moons of Mars :-

As compared to Uranus which have twenty seven moon, Mars has only two moons. They are: Phobos and Deimos. These moons are small and are irregularly shaped.

Phobos
img credit: NASA

Deimos
img credit: NASA

Deimos orbits Mars with a semi-major axis of 14,580 miles which is 23,460 km while Phobos orbits closer to Mars with a semi-major axis of 5,827 miles which is 9,377 km.

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4. It's Magnetic Field :-

There are certain regions of Mars crust that can be atleast 10 times more strongly magnetized than anything measured on Earth but currently Mars doesn't have any global magnetic field.

Mars has no inner dynamo to create a major global magnetic field but Mars do have a magnetosphere which is less extensive than that of the Earth.

5. The Frozen Polar Caps :-

Mars has sufficient amount of ice in it's north and south pole. It’s Northern cap is called Planum Boreum and Southern cap is called Planum Australe. Planet's entire surface can be covered to a depth of 11 meters by water if the ice of the south pole melts.

Frozen Cap Of Mars
Img Credits: NASA

The caps are made of solid carbon dioxide which is known as dry ice. In the deepest part of winter the frost can extend from halfway to the equator or from poles to latitudes as low as 45 degrees. In addition to Earth, Mars is the only other planet that has polar ice caps.

6. Atmospheric Composition :-

When the wind blows the planet sometimes sees dust storms which is due to the presence of red dust on the planet. These dust storms are sometimes visible by telescopes from the Earth. The storms can be sometimes so immense that it can cover the planet's entire surface.

The atmosphere of Mars is 2.7 % of nitrogen, 0.13 % of oxygen, 1.6 % of argon, 95.32 % of carbon dioxide, 0.08 % of carbon monoxide.

Due to less atmospheric pressure on Mars than Earth, things get blown with low intensity compared as on Earth with the same wind speed. Also, the top speed of the winds blowing in some of the strongest Martian storms is 60 miles per hour.

7. Orbital Characteristics :-

Mars takes 687 Earth days to complete one revolution around the sun. Because of the red planet's elliptical, oval-shaped orbit around the sun is more elongated than that of any of the other major planets, the Mars experiences seasons that are more extreme than Earth's.

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The axis of Mars, like Earth's, is tilted with relation to the sun. This means that like Earth, the amount of sunlight falling on certain parts of the planet can vary widely during the year, giving Mars seasons.

Changing of tilt lead to the release of methane into Mars's atmosphere which cause warming periods which allow water to flow.

The southern hemisphere experiences a long and cold winter whereas the northern hemisphere experiences mild summer as because it is tilted towards the sun when the planet remains the farthest from the sun.

8. Climate Of Mars :-

Mars have the largest dust storms in our solar system. The carbondioxide which is present in the Mars's atmosphere is not thick enough to support weather, clouds and winds. It is 100 times less denser than Earth.

Mars Climate
Img Credits: NASA

The planet is much more colder than Earth because it is much far away from the sun. Mars hold a temperature of near about 80 degrees Fahrenheit which is -60 degrees Celsius.

By the time the lighter molecules in the Martian atmosphere escaped under pressure which it got from the solar wind affecting the atmosphere. Earlier the atmosphere was thicker and was able to support flowing of water on it's surface.

9. Failed Missions :-

To explore the Red Planet many space organisation or space agency lost their spacecrafts. The following are the examples :-

9.1 2016 - ESA's Schiaparelli test lander
9.2 2011 - Russia's Fobus-Grunt mission to Phobos with the Chinese Yinghuo-1 orbiter
9.3 2003 - ESA's Beagle 2 lander
9.4 1999 - NASA's Mars Polar Lander
9.5 1998 - NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter, Japan's Nozomi
9.6 1996 - Russia's Mars 96
9.7 1992 - NASA's Mars Observer

Now comes the final topic of this post. Physical Character. You might be thinking why this topic at the last ? It's just random :)

10. Pysical Characteristics :-

The planet Mars have some of the highest mountains also deepest and longest valley in the entire solar system. Valles Marineris system of valley which named after the Mariner 9 probe can go deep as 6 miles which means 10 km.

Mars is also the Red Planet because the soil on the planet looks red. This is due to the iron minerals oxidize or rust causing the soil to look red.

Including Olympus Mons which is about 370 miles, i.e. , 600 km in diameter. Most of the volcanoes were created by eruptions of lavas that flowed for long distances before solidifying.

Red Planet Mars
Img Credits: NASA

There are many more things about the Red Planet "Mars." Many more missions are going to come to undercover the mysteries of this Red Planet.