Mars: The Red Planet
This picture above shows some of the surface features on the planet Mars including the canyon that is as
long as the distance from Halifax to Vancouver! Puts the Grand Canyon to shame!
Mars
- Known as the red planet because of rust in it's iron rich
soil.
- The colour of Mars reminded people of anger and blood and
so was named after the Roman god of war.
- Has polar ice caps made of ice and frozen carbon dioxide
(dry ice).
- Has a very thin atmosphere, it offers little protection
from the suns harmful ultraviolet rays.
- Mars'axis is tilted like Earth so it too has seasons but
it's year (how long it takes to orbit the sun) is twice as
long as Earth's (687 days).
- Rotates on it's axis in 24 hours and 37 minutes. So it's
day is almost the same length as Earth's.
- Has two potato shaped moons, called 'Phobos' and 'Deimos'.
Named after the Greek words for fear and panic. These moons are very small for
moons, Phobos is 22 Km in Diameter, and Deimos is 12 Km in Diameter.
- Is about half the size of Earth.
- There is a mountain on Mars called 'Olympus Mons'. It is
the highest known mountain in the solar sysytem and is a
volcano three times taller than Mount Everest!
To Mars' Moons
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