Mars, located four planets from the Sun, features a dense core, rocky mantle and thick crust with two small moons named Phobos and Deimos orbiting close by.
Mars gets its distinctive red hue from iron oxide found abundantly on its surface, taking after Ares – the Roman god of war.
Origins
Mars has long held our attention as one of the planets visible to our naked eyes from Earth, drawing great interest throughout history. While its red hue may evoke associations of bloodshed and war, that isn’t its sole raison d’etre. Mars remains fascinating and mysterious and has been the subject of intense scientific investigation for centuries.
As early as 400 BC, the Babylonians recorded their earliest observations of Mars. They named each bright object they observed – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – after one of their gods and assigned each its respective color.
Roman mythology held that Mars was the god of war. This belief can be seen through its translation into Latin as “march,” and its name itself from its Latin root word martius meaning “march.” Roman soldiers admired Mars as an influential force that could swing battles either way; its two moons Phobos (fearful deity) and Deimos (an angry god of terror).
Astronomers didn’t start studying Mars with telescopes until the 1700s. Italian astronomer Galileo made accurate observations of Mars as early as 1610. From his naked-eye observations alone, Galileo suggested it may contain darker regions which might represent oceans and lighter ones that might represent continents. Not until 1659 did Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens make drawings showing these features that became known as Syrtis Major and Syrtis Minor on Mars.
William Herschel was one of the first British astronomers to observe Mars more clearly with his telescopes in the 1800s and noticed its seasonal changes and polar caps with great clarity. Additionally, Herschel noted a magnetic field which likely generated millions or billions of years ago due to an unstable core becoming too solid and thus lost; therefore Mars no longer exhibits an active magnetic field at present.
Surface
Mars, as the fourth planet from our Sun, features an orange-red surface characterized by rugged rock. Home to some of the biggest natural geographic features in our Solar System such as Olympus Mons – three times taller than Mount Everest with a base bigger than New Mexico – and Valles Marineris Canyon system which spans from California to New York; both features offer stunning landscapes.
Mars, like other terrestrial planets in our Solar System, features a solid core, rocky mantle and thin crust. Scientists speculate that its mantle may contain similar composition as Earth, composed of minerals called peridotite. Furthermore, its crust may likely consist of basalt with areas possibly including andesite rocks as well.
Due to its reddish hue and pitted surface, Mars has long been associated with legends throughout history. Astronomers have made significant discoveries about it as well; for instance in 19th-century Italy’s Giovanni Schiaparelli and American Percival Lowell both claimed to have seen canals on Mars that indicate past life existed there – claims later disproved by other astronomers.
Other discoveries by astronomers have included the length and tilt of Martian days and years, and how this impacts sunlight distribution on Mars; giving each area different seasons.
NASA launched several space probes during the 20th century to study different regions of Mars. And in 2004, two golf-cart-sized rovers called Spirit and Opportunity from NASA to explore it further, providing evidence that water once flowed on its surface. However, Mars is currently colder than ever; temperatures can fall to below freezing during wintertime while rising up to 70 F during summer months; additionally polar ice caps have shrunk over time due to loss of its heat-retaining greenhouse effect due to which more energy leaves than is coming in during wintertime due to solar radiation being received by our planet from solar.
Crust
Mars, a reddish planet with a surface composed of fine layers of iron dust and rocks about as hard as talcum powder, features a thick crust of basalt rock which contains minerals such as magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium – as well as hidden ice sheets! Scientists have also recently identified hidden layers of water ice below its surface.
The northern hemisphere of our planet is relatively featureless and flat; while its southern counterpart is mountainous and dry. This asymmetry may have arisen as a result of different patterns of magma flow or due to one or more large impacts soon after planet formation.
Mars’ surface is covered with impact craters that are twice the size of Earth’s Moon, some being over two-and-a-half times bigger. Some craters have become flooded by water found in Mars’ polar ice caps; robotic rovers have detected evidence that rivers or lakes of liquid water once flowed across its surface.
Mars lacks oceans but has nearly the same amount of land as Earth. Additionally, two small satellites – Phobos and Deimos – resemble potatoes due to lacking enough mass to be circular shaped objects; likely captured asteroids made them so.
Mars no longer has an active magnetic field, but scientists have identified spots on its surface where remnants of one once existed millions to billions of years ago. Scientists believe that its loss was caused by too solid core becoming too inflexible to produce magnetic dynamo effects that create magnetic fields.
Mars orbits the Sun at approximately 227 million miles (141.6 million kilometers), with light taking approximately 13 minutes to reach its surface from its source – making it much closer to Earth than Venus, which orbits further away at 284 million miles (391 million kilometers). Due to this proximity with Earth, Mars appears more familiar than many of the other planets within our Solar System, as its surface features such as craters, deserts and polar ice caps resemble those found here on our own planet.
Interior
Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has long fascinated observers since ancient times. Its reddish glow in the night sky has long been associated with war and death; moreover, Mars has inspired numerous works of science fiction like H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.” One of the first people to make close observations using a telescope of Mars was Galileo who discovered its polar ice caps; other observers have witnessed numerous phenomena on its surface including seasonal changes to dark markings that alter both in their extent and color; some astronomers like Percival Lowell and Giovanni Schiaparelli claimed seeing linear features that suggested some ancient civilization existed on its surface;
As with other terrestrial planets, Mars consists of a dense metal core surrounded by a rocky silicate mantle and thin crust. Its distinctive rusty hue is due to oxidized iron dust that settles onto its surface like fine talcum powder – however underneath this surface lies volcanic basalt rock covered by soil that contains magnesium, calcium potassium and sodium minerals.
Due to its distance from the Sun, Mars is significantly colder than Earth. Its average temperature hovers at approximately minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius), though midday temperatures at the equator can sometimes exceed 70 F (20 C). Mars features volcanoes and impact craters as well as some of the flattest regions anywhere in Solar System in its northern plains; in contrast, its southern hemisphere mainly comprises mountains but does feature some low-lying regions as well.
Mars does not possess oceans, yet nearly covers an equivalent land area as Earth. Its rocky surface features numerous craters, rocks and dust that have persuaded people into believing they have seen giant face-like structures or small humanoids; this effect is caused by our brains being trained to recognize recognizable shapes. But these craters are actually caused by impacts from space debris or fragments of Martian crust colliding into each other and creating impacts which create them over time, according to LiveScience.