MARS

MARS

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the seventh largest:

Planet Profile

• orbit: 227,940,000 km (1.52 AU) from Sun
• diameter: 6,794 km
• mass: 6.4219e23 kg

History of Mars
Mars (Greek: Ares) is the god of War. The planet probably got this name due to its red color; Mars is sometimes referred to as the Red Planet. (An interesting side note: the Roman god Mars was a god of agriculture before becoming associated with the Greek Ares; those in favor of colonizing and terraforming Mars may prefer this symbolism.) The name of the month March derives from Mars.
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Mars has been known since prehistoric times. Of course, it has been extensively studied with ground-based observatories. But even very large telescopes find Mars a difficult target, it's just too small. It is still a favorite of science fiction writers as the most favorable place in the Solar System (other than Earth!) for human habitation. But the famous "canals" "seen" by Lowell and others were, unfortunately, just as imaginary as Barsoomian princesses.  viking landing site
 pathfinder landing site

The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965. Several others followed including Mars 2, the first spacecraft to land on Mars and the two Viking landers in 1976. Ending a long 20 year hiatus, Mars Pathfinder landed successfully on Mars on 1997 July 4. In 2004 the Mars Expedition Rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" landed on Mars sending back geologic data and many pictures; they are still operating after more than three years on Mars. In 2008, Phoenix landed in the northern plains to search for water. Three Mars orbiters (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and Mars Express) are also currently in operation.

Mars' orbit is significantly elliptical. One result of this is a temperature variation of about 30 C at the subsolar point between aphelion and perihelion. This has a major influence on Mars' climate. While the average temperature on Mars is about 218 K (-55 C, -67 F), Martian surface temperatures range widely from as little as 140 K (-133 C, -207 F) at the winter pole to almost 300 K (27 C, 80 F) on the day side during summer.

Though Mars is much smaller than Earth, its surface area is about the same as the land surface area of Earth. Olympus Moons

Mars has some of the most highly varied and interesting terrain of any of the terrestrial planets, some of it quite spectacular:

Olympus Mons: the largest mountain in the Solar System rising 24 km (78,000 ft.) above the surrounding plain. Its base is more than 500 km in diameter and is rimmed by a cliff 6 km (20,000 ft) high.
Tharsis: a huge bulge on the Martian surface that is about 4000 km across and 10 km high.
Valles Marineris: a system of canyons 4000 km long and from 2 to 7 km deep
Hellas Planitia: an impact crater in the southern hemisphere over 6 km deep and 2000 km in diameter.
Much of the Martian surface is very old and cratered, but there are also much younger rift valleys, ridges, hills and plains.

The southern hemisphere of Mars is predominantly ancient cratered highlands somewhat similar to the Moon. In contrast, most of the northern hemisphere consists of plains which are much younger, lower in elevation and have a much more complex history. An abrupt elevation change of several kilometers seems to occur at the boundary. The reasons for this global dichotomy and abrupt boundary are unknown (some speculate that they are due to a very large impact shortly after Mars' accretion). Mars Global Surveyor has produced a nice 3D map of Mars that clearly shows these features.

The interior of Mars is known only by inference from data about the surface and the bulk statistics of the planet. The most likely scenario is a dense core about 1700 km in radius, a molten rocky mantle somewhat denser than the Earth's and a thin crust. Data from Mars Global Surveyor indicates that Mars' crust is about 80 km thick in the southern hemisphere but only about 35 km thick in the north. Mars' relatively low density compared to the other terrestrial planets indicates that its core probably contains a relatively large fraction of sulfur in addition to iron (iron and iron sulfide).

Like Mercury and the Moon, Mars seems to need dynamic plate tectonics as of now; there is no proof of late flat movement of the surface, for example, the collapsed mountains so normal on Earth. With no sidelong plate movement, problem areas under the outside stay in a decent position comparative with the surface. This, alongside the lower surface gravity, may represent the Tharis swell and its colossal volcanoes. There is no proof of current volcanic movement. Notwithstanding, information from Mars Global Surveyor demonstrates that Mars probably had structural action at some point before. martian valley organization

There is exceptionally obvious proof of disintegration in many puts on Mars including huge floods and little stream frameworks. Previously there was plainly some kind of liquid on a superficial level. Fluid water is the undeniable liquid however different potential outcomes exist. There might have been huge lakes or even seas; the proof for which was strenghtened by a few extremely pleasant pictures of layered territory taken by Mars Global Surveyor and the mineralology results from MER Opportunity. 

The vast majority of these highlight wet episodes that happened just momentarily and extremely some time in the past; the age of the disintegration channels is assessed at about almost 4 billion years. Notwithstanding, pictures from Mars Express delivered in mid 2005 show what seems, by all accounts, to be a frozen ocean that was fluid as of late (perhaps 5 million years prior). Affirmation of this translation would be an exceptionally serious deal without a doubt!

Right off the bat in its set of experiences, Mars was considerably more like Earth. Likewise with Earth practically all of its carbon dioxide was utilized something like structure carbonate rocks. In any case, coming up short on the Earth's plate tectonics, Mars can't reuse any of this carbon dioxide back into its climate thus can't support a critical nursery impact. The outer layer of Mars is accordingly a lot colder than the Earth would be at that distance from the Sun.

Mars has an exceptionally slender air made for the most part out of the minuscule measure of residual carbon dioxide (95.3%) in addition to nitrogen (2.7%), argon (1.6%) and hints of oxygen (0.15%) and water (0.03%). The normal tension on the outer layer of Mars is somewhere around 7 millibars (under 1% of Earth's), yet it fluctuates enormously with elevation from very nearly 9 millibars in the most profound bowls to around 1 millibar at the highest point of Olympus Mons.

 However, it is thick enough to withstand extremely strong breezes and huge residual storms that sometimes inundate the entire planet for long periods of time. Mars' thin air creates a nursery effect, but it's enough to raise the surface temperature by 5 degrees (K); much less than anything we see on Venus and Earth. The southern polar cap of MarsEarly perceptions showed that Mars has superpermanent ice caps on two axes; they can even be seen with a small telescope. 

Today we know that they consist of water ice and strong carbon dioxide ("dry ice"). Ice sheets exhibit a layered structure with rotating ice sheets with fluctuating convergences of the faint remnant.In the summer, the carbon dioxide sublimates completely in the north, leaving a layer of water ice. ESA's Mars Express probe has shown that there is also a layer of water ice under the southern ice cap. The component responsible for the stratification is unclear, but may be due to climate change associated with long-term changes in trend from Mars' equator to the plane of its circle. 

With lower telescopes, there may also be water ice beneath the surface. Occasional changes in the degree of polar coverage change global atmospheric tension by about 25% (estimated at Viking lander positions).HST perspective of MarsSubsequent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have shown that the circumstances surrounding the Viking missions may not have been trivial. 

The air on Mars is now in all respects cooler and drier than the Viking landers had estimated (other subtleties STScI).Viking landers have performed scans to determine the presence of life on Mars. The results were fairly inconclusive, but most researchers now admit they show no evidence of life on Mars (although there is still some debate). Positive thinkers point out that the top two small examples were appreciated, not in the best areas.Further analysis will complement future missions to Mars.

Few shooting stars (the SNC shooting stars) are accepted to have started on Mars.

On 1996 Aug 6, David McKay et al declared their thought process may be proof of antiquated Martian microorganisms in the shooting star ALH84001. However there is still some debate, most of established researchers has not acknowledged this end. Assuming that there is or alternately was life on Mars, we actually haven't tracked down it.

Huge, however not worldwide, powerless attractive fields exist in different areas of Mars. This unforeseen finding was made by Mars Global Surveyor only days after it entered Mars circle. They are presumably remainders of a prior worldwide field that has since vanished. This might have significant ramifications for the design of Mars' inside and for the previous history of its air and consequently for the chance of old life.

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Whenever it is in the evening time sky, Mars is effectively noticeable with the independent eye. Mars is a troublesome yet compensating objective for a novice telescope however just for the three or four months every martian year when it is nearest to Earth. Its obvious size and brilliance changes extraordinarily as indicated by its general situation to the Earth. There are a few Web locales that show the current place of Mars (and different planets) overhead. More nitty gritty and redid graphs can be made with a planetarium program. Cool.

MARS VIDEO