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Mars

Mars is commonly known as the red planet, and probably got its name because of this, as Mars is the god of war. Mars is the fourth furthest planet from the Sun and the seventh largest. It has quite a varied terrain. One of the most interesting features of this terrain are the two permanent polar caps of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice). Mars is known to have very high winds and can also have dust storms that last for several� months.

One day and/or year on Mars is very similar to one on Earth, but its high temperatures and make up of its atmosphere mean that it cannot sustain life. Mars has two small moons, which are relatively close to its surface, called Phobos and Deimos. Phobos is the larger of the two moons, and because it is so close to the surface of Mars (just 6000km away) it orbits Mars twice each day. Deimos is the smallest known Moon in the Solar System, and is only 12km in diameter.

Diameter	6, 800 km
Mass	6.42 × 10²³kg
Mean Distance from sun	227.94 × 10⁶ km
Mean Density	3.95 g/cm³
Rotational Period	1.02 Earth days
Orbital Period	687 Earth days
Mean Orbital Velocity	24 km/s
Atmosphere	95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 2% argon
Average Surface Temperature	- 50°C
Equatorial Surface Gravity	3.72 m/s²

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	Related Topics:
			The inner planets Mercury Venus Earth Outer planets


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	Sites:
			Mars at NASA

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