Mars Facts

Did you know Mars was formed about 4.5 billion years ago!

A year on Mars is equivalent to 686.98 Earth Days.

Good news for weight conscious people. If you weighed 70 pounds on the Earth, you would weigh about 27 pounds on Mars. This is basically due to strong gravitational pull of Earth, which is not that strong on Mars.

Scientists believe that once there was large amount of water on Mars. Traces of rivers, lakes and even oceans have been found on the red planet. They dried up about 4 billion years a go. So researchers believe life might have existed on the planet.

Also, it is noticable that water in the frozen form exist under the surface of Mars.

This red planet is 227,940,000 km away from the sun.

It is made up of iron, covered by rock and then a thin layer of atmosphere.

The red planet currently has two moons i.e. Phobos and Deimos. Phobos will be eventually pulled by the planet and will crash into it.

Did you know the first person to observe Mars through a telescope was Galileo Galilee. He did that way back in 1609.

Winds blow on Mars upto 100km/h.

Mars is in fact the seventh largest planet in the Solar System.

The month of March is named after Mars.

Its atmosphere is mostly made up of Carbon Dioxide.

During the Viking missions to Mars, scientists were worried about contaminating the Martian environment with microbes from Earth.

It has a diameter of 6794.4 km.

Mars has the tallest mountain in the Solar System, Olympus Mons. It stands at an altitude of 24 km (78,000 feet) with a base that is 600 km across.

Tilt of the red planet is 25.19 degrees.

The temperature in Mars fluctuates from a maximum of 0° C ( 32° F) to a minimum of -100° C (-148° F). Cold Place! Ain't it?

Density of this planet is 3.94 g/cm3.

Mars’ crust is thicker than Earth’s and is made up of one piece, unlike Earth’s crust which consists of several moving plates.

On August 27, 2003, the planet Mars made its closest approach to the Earth in nearly 60,000 years. It is calculated that the next time it will be that close again will be in the year 2287.