2 Facts About Mars You Must Know

Mars is one of the most researched planets in our solar system. It also hosts Olympus Mons – three times taller than Mount Everest!

Red Planet derives its vibrant hue from iron minerals in its soil, which rust away during dust storms on Earth. Romans gave this planet its name after Ares, their god of war.

1. It has a thin atmosphere

Mars has an atmosphere consisting of Carbon Dioxide that is very thin. It covers less than one percent of Earth’s volume, and has 30 times less pressure than air at sea level on our home planet. Due to this low atmospheric pressure, solar heat escapes easily causing extreme temperature variations: feet can feel warm while heads may feel cool; creating an experience similar to spring in foothills but winter in mountains.

Mars’ thin atmosphere makes it extremely challenging for liquid water to exist on its surface, without an ozone protective layer to block harmful ultraviolet rays that reach soil layers and destroy any organic molecules found there, thus making life impossible on this world.

On Mars there is some water beneath its polar ice caps and in seasonal streams flowing down hillsides into crater walls, although none is currently liquid state; they have the potential to become so in the future.

Some scientists have theorized that Mars may once have harbored life due to the presence of flowing waters, though it’s unlikely any forms could survive today due to its thin atmosphere and rapid temperature shifts which make breathing difficult and would likely kill any organisms that tried to exist on it.

Mars doesn’t possess a magnetic field to protect its atmosphere from solar winds, which are much stronger than on Earth and can easily strip away gases from this planet’s atmosphere. Scientists have tracked this loss of noble gases such as argon from Mars’ atmosphere by measuring how fast ions from solar winds hit this atmosphere at high speed, dislodging argon into space through “sputtering.”

Mars dust takes time to settle due to giant dust storms sweeping through its surface, taking months after each one to return back to normal conditions.

2. It has frozen water today

Although Mars is cold now, scientists believe it once had water. Evidence for this includes polar ice caps and geological features resembling river valleys; additionally, orbiting spacecraft have detected evidence suggesting there may still be liquid water beneath its surface; although such proof doesn’t support life on Mars directly. Regardless, such evidence hints at an earlier time when Mars resembled Earth much more closely.

Mars is abundant with minerals that formed in water and still hold onto it; these are called hydrated minerals. Some of them are so soluble they flow down slopes on Mars while other hydrated minerals are so solid they can even be used as building blocks – scientists have even discovered pebbles rounded off by water flow!

Mars’ distinctive reddish hue is due to iron oxide – more commonly known as rust. When sunlight hits these minerals, its beams scatter and reflect, giving Mars its signature hue. Meanwhile, Venus is colored due to a runaway greenhouse effect which traps heat from the Sun and causes it to heat up the planet substantially more than on Mars.

Mars’ water ice is mostly located in its polar regions, where sunlight cannot reach for extended periods. Mars’ thin atmosphere causes any exposed ice to sublimate (turn from solid into gas directly without melting), while much of its remaining reserves lie deep underground or within permafrost layers and reservoirs.

Possible scenarios for some polar ice include being covered in salt to keep it liquid, or warming from volcanic activity could contribute to keeping its base liquid. On Earth this same phenomenon exists where an Antarctic lake that lies 3.7 km (2 miles) beneath its ice sheet remains liquid year round due to its high salt content remains liquid all year long.

Scientists speculate that for Mars polar ice to ever form permanent bodies of water, its salinity must match that of Lake Vostok under Antarctica’s ice cap. If this were ever to occur, it could provide vital clues into whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

3. It has a volcano

Mars has been observed by spacecraft for years. While small clusters of volcanic features occasionally catch the eye of scientists, most believe its time of eruptions has long passed. So when a giant volcano emerged suddenly recently it came as quite a shock; planetary scientist Pascal Lee and graduate student Sourabh Shubham quickly identified it using images from various missions as well as signs that indicate there may be glaciers hidden under its slopes.

Noctis Labyrinthus region on Mars contains maze-like valleys and canyons, stretching into Valles Marineris canyon system. Due to its location, Noctis could have erupted during Noachian or Amazonian periods when these regions were predominantly free from ice cover.

Noctis is an example of a shield volcano on Mars similar to those found here on Earth; with shallow-sloping flanks and a summit caldera. But in contrast with Earth-bound shield volcanoes, Martian shield volcanoes are enormous: Olympus Mons stands 550 km across and 21 km high–nearly 100 times bigger in volume than Mauna Loa, Earth’s largest active volcano.

Shield volcanoes often form around hot spots, which are areas deep within Earth’s mantle where magma accumulates more easily. Mars, like Earth, also features hot spots under its crust – though with no plate tectonics to move them around as quickly, meaning hot spots have more chance to grow into such immense sizes more rapidly than on our home planet.

Noctis lies within the Tharsis volcanic province, which is dominated by three massive shield volcanoes aligned northeast-southwest along its crest and part of a larger Tharsis bulge that may cover up to 25% of Mars’ total surface area. Along with these shield volcanoes are several other features including lava flows and mare-like volcanic plains – giving further credence to the theory that Mars was volcanically active recently – possibly even still active today! This discovery gives further credence to this theory that suggests Mars was once very volcanically active within recent geological memory – further supporting this theory of volcanism during recent geological history – even possibly still active today!

4. It has a crater

Recently in geologic time, an object from space collided with Mars, unleashing enormous amounts of debris across its surface. Without plate tectonics to reshape or volcanoes to wash away this waste material, Mars remains covered with many craters today.

Curiosity explores Gale Crater near Mars’ equator. Once home to an immense lake that once held back rivers flowing across it and built Mount Sharp as sediment accumulated into mountains – but as time progressed and rivers disappeared over time, winds gradually created dunes on top of these ancient layers, leaving only an imperfect record of this wet-to-dry transition on Mars for future scientists to interpret.

But as they analyzed the sandstone layers on Mount Sharp, scientists noticed something odd – instead of being perfectly aligned, the layers had warped and twisted, like they’d been exposed to violent landslides. Now these sandstones provide clues to Mars’ wet-to-dry history.

Layers also reveal that Mars has a differentiated interior, with denser materials closer to its core and less dense materials further out – similar to what gave Earth its characteristic flatness and made it one of only two planets with magnetic fields.

Mars’ polar caps are composed of both water and carbon dioxide, which may explain why its seasons are so distinct – northern winter can last almost as long as southern summer!

Mars features two small moons named Phobos and Deimos that have too little mass for them to form into spheres. Phobos and Deimos may have formed from asteroids captured by Mars’ gravity field; their orbits match that of its planet, rising west and setting east like our own Moon does. Furthermore, Phobos and Deimos would overtake you from east to west just like our own Moon does!