MARS

By: Charanjit, Richard & Cesar

Planet Position in the Solar System

• Mar is the fourth planet from the Sun

• Seventh largest in our solar system

• Known as one of the terrestrial or rocky planets

Formation & Age of Mars

• 4.6 billion years old!

• Scientist believe, Mars and the rest of the planets were formed from a solar nebula 4.6 billion years ago.

• Formed from massive rocks colliding and breaking up producing huge quantities of dust and particles.

What is the Size of Mars?

Well there are so many different ways to measure the size of the Red Planet

Here are 4 ways!

Diameter of Mars

• Diameter of 6794km

• Radius of 3397km

• That’s only 53% the diameter of Earth

Surface Area

• Surface Area: 145,000,000 km^2

• Mars only has about 28% the surface area of the Earth!

*Interesting Fact*

Volume

• Mars Volume: 1.63x10^11 km^3

• That’s only 15% the volume of Earth

*Interesting Fact*

Mass

• Mars Mass: 6.4x10^23 kg

• Density: 3.933g/cm^3

Distance

• Distance of Mars from the Sun: 227,920,000km

• Distance of Mars from Earth: Depends on the position of the two planets in their orbits.

• Can be as small as 54,500,000km or as large as 401,300,000km

Gravitational Force

•Due to mass and density of Mars, force of gravity on Mars is

38% of that on Earth

•A person standing on Mars would feel as if his or her weight had

decreased by 62 %

•A rock dropped on Mars will drop more slowly than a rock on earth

Rotation

•Rotates on its axis from West to East

•Martian solar day is 24 hours 39 minutes 35 seconds long! (about

the same as of Earth)

•Axis of Mars is not perpendicular to the planet's orbital plane, the axis is tilted from the perpendicular position like earth

Orbit

•Travels around the sun in an elliptical orbit

•Slightly more stretched than the orbits of

Earth and other planets

•Orbits around sun takes 687 Earth days

(Martian Year)

Moons / Satellites

•Two small moons called Phobos and Deimos

•Discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877

•Moons are irregularly shaped

•Phobos orbits Mars quickest

•Diameter of Phobos: 27 km Diameter: Deimos: 15 km

Magnetic Field

•Remnants of a magnetic field

•Had a full magnetic field but giant asteroids

slamming into Mars may have wiped out the planetary magnetic field

Tilt

• Mars has a tilt of 25.2 degrees, very close to the 23.5 degrees of Earth

Atmosphere

•Contains much less oxygen (O2) than that of Earth

•O2 composes only 0.13%, compared with 21 % in Earth's

atmosphere

•CO2 makes up 95.3% of atmosphere

•Other gases include nitrogen, argon, carbon monoxide

Climate Change

• Some similar climates to Earth

• Polar ice caps, seasonal changes and the observable presence of weather patterns

• Differences such as the absence of liquid water (though frozen water exists)

Average Temperature

• Average Temperature: -63 °C

• Highest Recorded Temperature: 20 °C

• Lowest Recorded Temperature: -140 °C

Geological Features

• Enormous Shield Volcanoes

• Largest volcano on Mars is called Olympus Mons

• Running Water Erosion

• Channels around1500 km long and 200 km wide that appear to been cut by running water

Cont..

• Large Canyon Systems

• The largest is Valles Marineris,

• Polar Ice Caps

• Wind Erosion

• High velocity seasonal winds (dust storms)

Space Probes

• Vikings 1 and 2, first space probes to land on Mars

• Probes measured wind speed, wind direction, atmospheric temperature, and atmospheric pressure. 

• Viking orbits mapped the Martian surface

Interesting Facts

• Mars seasons are twice as long as those on Earth

• Mars red color is due to iron oxide, also known as rust, metallic rocks on Mar’s are rusting

• The symbol for Mars is the same as the symbol for male sex

• The month of March is named after Mars

• Water on Mars? NASA proved it!

Gullies (liquid water)