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Surface
The red planet is actually many colors. At the surface, we see colors as brown, gold, and tan. The reason Mars looks reddish is due to oxidization—or rusting—of iron in the rocks, regolith (Martian “soil”), and dust of Mars. This dust gets kicked up into the atmosphere and from a distance makes the planet appear mostly red.
Interestingly, while Mars is about half the diameter of Earth, its surface has nearly the same area as Earth’s dry land. Its volcanoes, impact craters, crustal movement, and atmospheric conditions such as dust storms have altered the landscape of Mars over many years, creating some of the solar system's most interesting topographical features.
A large canyon system called Valles Marineris is long enough to stretch from California to New York—more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers). This Martian canyon is 200 miles (320 kilometers) at its widest and 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) at its deepest. That's about 10 times the size of Earth's Grand Canyon.
Mars is home to the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons. It's three times taller than Earth's Mt. Everest with a base the size of the state of New Mexico.
Mars appears to have had a watery past, with ancient river valley networks, deltas, and lakebeds, as well as rocks and minerals on the surface that could only have formed in liquid water. Some features suggest that Mars experienced huge floods about 3.5 billion years ago.
There is water on Mars today, but the Martian atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to exist for long on the surface.
Today, water on Mars is found in the form of water-ice just under the surface in the polar regions as well as in briny (salty) water, which seasonally flows down some hillsides and crater walls.
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Quick facts
Day: 24.6 hours
Year: 669.6 sols / 687 earth days
Radius: 2,106 miles / 3.390 kilometers
Planet type: Terrestrial
Temperature: The temperature on Mars can be as high as 70 degrees Fahrenhe...
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Structure
Mars has a dense core at its center between 930 and 1,300 miles (1,500 to 2,100 kilometers) in radius. It's made of iron, nickel, and sulfur.
Surrounding the core is a rocky mantle between 770 and 1,170 miles (1,240 to 1,880 kilometers) thick, and above that, a crust made of iron, magnesiu...
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Mars
Mars was named by the ancient Romans for their god of war because its reddish color was reminiscent of blood.
Other civilizations also named the planet for this attribute; for example, the Egyptians called it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one." Even today, it is frequently called the "Red...
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Size and distance
With a radius of 2,106 miles (3,390 kilometers), Mars is about half the size of Earth.
If Earth were the size of a nickel, Mars would be about as big as a raspberry.
From an average distance of 142 million miles (228 million kilometers), Mars is 1.5 astronomical units away from the S...
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Exploration
No planets beyond earth has been studied as much as mars. Recorded observations of Mars date as far back as the era of ancient Egypt over 4,000 years ago, when they charted the planet's movements in the sky.
Today, an international fleet of robotic spacecraft study Mars from all ang...
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Orbit an rotation
As mars orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 24,6 hours, which is very similar to one day on Earth (23.9 hours). Martian days are called sols—short for "solar day." A year on Mars lasts 669.6 sols, which is the same as 687 Earth days.
Mars' axis of rotation is tilted 25 degrees w...
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Moons
Mars has to small moons that may be captured asteroids. They're potato-shaped because they have too little mass for gravity to make them spherical.
The moons get their names from the horses that pulled the chariot of the Greek god of war, Ares.
- Phobos, the innermost and larger mo...
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Magnetoshpere
Mars has no global magnetoshpere today, but areas of the Martian crust in the southern hemisphere are highly magnetized, indicating traces of a magnetic field from 4 billion years ago.
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Potential for life
Scientists don't expect to find living things currently thriving on Mars. Instead, they're looking for signs of life that existed long ago, when Mars was warmer and covered with water.
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Formation
When the solar system settled into its current layout about 4.5 billion years ago, Mars formed when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become the fourth planet from the Sun.
Mars is about half the size of Earth, and like its fellow terrestrial planets, it has a central core, a rock...
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Atmosphere
Mars has a thin atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide , nitrogen, and argon gases. To our eyes, the sky would be hazy and red because of suspended dust instead of the familiar blue tint we see on Earth. Mars' sparse atmosphere doesn't offer much protection from impacts by such objects as me...
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Rings
Mars has no rings However, in 50 million years when Phobos crashes into Mars or breaks apart, it could create a dusty ring around the Red Planet.
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Mars: Past missions, major discoveries
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Mars
Mars was named by the ancient Romans for their god of war because its reddish color was reminiscent of blood.
Other civilizations also named the planet for this attribute; for example, the Egyptians called it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one." Even today, it is frequently called the "Red...
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