Mars

Mars Profile
Mass: 641,693,000,000,000 billion kg (0.107 x Earth)
Equatorial Diameter: 6,805 km
Polar Diameter: 6,755 km
Equatorial Circumference: 21,297 km
Known Moons: 2
Orbit Distance: 227,943,824 km (1.38 AU)
Orbit Period: 686.98 Earth days (1.88 Earth years)
Surface Temperature: -87 to -5 °C
Mars Facts
  • Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and last of the terrestrial planets. Like the rest of the planets in the solar system (except Earth), Mars is named after a mythological figure - the Roman god of war. In addition to its official name, Mars is sometimes called the Red Planet because of the brownish-red color of its surface. Mars is the second smallest planet in the solar system behind Mercury.
  • The landmass of Mars and Earth is very similar. Despite Mars being just 15% the volume and 10% the mass of Earth, it actually has a similar landmass because water covers about 70% of Earth’s surface. The surface gravity of Mars is about 37% the gravity found on Earth. This means that on Mars you could in theory jump 3x higher than you could on Earth.
  • The tallest mountain known in the solar system is on Mars. Olympus Mons is a 21 km high and 600 km diameter shield volcano that was formed billions of years ago. Scientists have found a lot of recent evidence of volcanic lava which suggests Olympus Mons may still be active. It is the second highest mountain in the entire solar system, topped only by the Rheasilvia central peak on the asteroid Vesta, which is 22 km high.
  • Mars is the only other planet besides Earth that has polar ice caps. The northern cap is called the Planum Boreum, with Planum Australe in the south. Water ice has also been found under the Martian ice caps.
  • Mars has seasons like Earth, but they last twice as long. This is because Mars is tilted on its axis by about 25.19 degrees, which is similar to the axial tilt of the Earth (22.5 degrees).
  • One day Mars will have a ring. In the next 20-40 million years Mars’ largest moon Phobos will be torn apart by gravitational forces leading to the creation of a ring that could last up to 100 million years.
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