Mars is just one of the planets comprising the Solar System. It is also the fourth planet following the Sun. Scientists often describe it as the Red Planet because of its reddish appearance. Among the planets in the Solar System, Mars is one of the reported terrestrial planets. The planet itself has a thin atmosphere and is made up mostly of carbon dioxide. These are just some of the basic facts about the planet. Do you want to know more cool facts about the planet Mars?
The Planet Along With Earth Has Roughly Similar Landmass
The volume of Mars is only about 15% of Earth and is only over 10% of the planet. However, Earth’s surface comprised water. As for gravity, Mars is only about 37% of the Earth’s. This means that in Mars, you can jump three times higher than you can normally do.
In the Solar System, The Planet Features the Tallest Mountain
This mountain is called as the Olympus Mons, which is a shield volcano. Its height is 21km and has a diameter of 600km. Based on discoveries, the mountain has been formed more than billions of years ago. However, based on evidence, scientists told that it could still be active due to the lava flows seen, which seemed to occur just so recently.
From All the Missions Made to Mars, Only 16 of these were Successful
In total, there were already 39 missions made to Mars, which include Orbiters, Rovers and Landers. In these missions, the flybys were not even included on the list yet. In the future, a mission is also set to launch come 2016. The scheduled mission is planned by the Exobiology on Mars Program of Europe. The mission entails a search for possible Martian life traces, study the environment’s surface as well as take notes of potential hazards in the operation of future missions. Lastly, the mission is a preparation step toward an eventual return mission to the planet.
In the Solar System, The Largest Dust Storms Occur in Mars
During a dust storm, the planet can even be entirely covered by it, and can even last for several months. Mars’s seasons are also extreme since its elliptical and orbital path that surrounds the sun is more elongated compared to the other planets.
Pieces coming from Mars are Said to Have Fallen to Earth
This is one of the cool facts about the planet Mars you can find. Tiny traces of the Mar’s atmosphere have been found by some scientists on Earth. It was found on meteorites that were ejected from Mars violently. The same meteorites have been found to be orbiting the solar system along with other galactic debris for so long now.
Mars also Has Water
On science books, it is stated that Mars does not have lakes, rivers or oceans. However, as one of the cool facts about the planet Mars, deposits of water below its surface have been detected when the Mars Odyssey spacecraft of NASA was launched.
Learning some cool facts about the planet Mars is really a fun activity. If you want to know more of these, there are still a lot you can find.