Mars: 3 interesting facts you didn’t know yet about the Red Planet

One of the easiest planets to spot in the night sky (as there is a bright red dot towards the west), Mars is a world unlike anything we know. After all, this is the only place other than Earth known to be inhabited by robots: two surface rovers, a helicopter, and eight space probes in orbit.

This neighbor of ours, which is the fourth planet in terms of distance from the Sun, is the closest planet of the Solar System with a distance of approximately 225 million kilometers. However, this number can vary significantly due to the elliptical shape of the orbits of the two planets.

However, closeness does not mean similarity. The planet called the Red Planet, named after the large amount of rust (iron oxide) on its surface., at least for now, looks nothing like Earth. It’s a dry, rocky and extremely cold place, according to NASA.

But this is not the only feature of Mars. Here are some interesting facts about the planet that you may not know yet.

Comparison of Mars with Earth

Mars has an average radius of 3.39 thousand kilometers, slightly more than half of the Earth’s average radius of 6.37 thousand kilometers. Adapting the NASA analogy, we can say that if the Earth were a R$0.25 coin, Mars would have a diameter the size of a blackberry.

Mars completes its rotation on its axis every 24.6 hours, meaning a day there lasts slightly longer than our 23.9 hours. To refer to a day on Mars, scientists often use the term “sun”. Thus, a year on the Red Planet lasts 669.6 suns; This is equivalent to 687 Earth days.

Our red neighbor, which is almost identical to our planet, has an axis of rotation inclined 25 degrees relative to the plane of the solar orbit (our axis tilt is 23.4 degrees). As a result, Mars also has distinct seasons, but they last longer than those on Earth because it takes longer for the planet to complete its own transformation.. Spring in the Northern Hemisphere (autumn in the Southern) is the longest season with 94 suns.

surface of the Red Planet

The surface of Mars is not only red (the dominant color of the regolith), but also has shades of brown, gold, and tan. Although the diameter of the planet is slightly more than half the diameter of our planet, its total area is almost the same as the dry surface of the Earth.

The Martian landscape displays some of the most remarkable topographic features in the Solar System. The canyon system, called Valles Marineris, is larger than the length of Brazil’s land from end to end (4,300 kilometers). The maximum width of this huge gorge is 320 kilometers and its depth is seven kilometers, making it ten times the size of the Grand Canyon in the USA.

Mars is also home to Olympus Mons, the Solar System’s largest volcano; It is three times the height of our Mount Everest and has a base of approximately 315 thousand square kilometers. The landscape is completed by networks of ancient river valleys, deltas and lake beds, a legacy of a waterlogged past and major floods that occurred 3.5 billion years ago.

Water and atmosphere of Mars

Today it is known that there is water on Mars, but it is not on its surface.. Since the extremely thin atmosphere does not provide protection against cosmic rays, hydrogen, one of the main components of water, goes directly into space. Thus, Martian water is concentrated in the form of ice beneath the polar regions or as salt water that flows cyclically on some slopes and crater walls.

The Red Planet’s rarefied atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon gases. This means that the Martian sky is predominantly reddish and hazy, rather than blue like on Earth. Since the Martian atmosphere is not very dense, it does not prevent objects such as meteors, asteroids and comets from falling, which indicates the presence of large craters on the ground.

Another interesting effect of the thin atmosphere is that it does not retain the Sun’s heat on the surface. For example, if we were standing at the Martian equator at noon. the temperature under our feet is similar to the temperature of the spring on Earth (24° C), but the thermal sensation in our head will be 0° C. The sum of these features means that scientists do not expect to find life on Mars, only traces of it. microbial past life.

Did you like the content? So, stay up to date with more curiosities like this one on TecMundo about the stars in our solar system and take the opportunity to discover what the temperatures are on other planets.