Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the seventh largest:
orbit: 227,940,000 km (1.52 AU) from Sun
diameter: 6,794 km
mass: 6.4219e23 kg
Mars (Greek: Ares) is the god of War. The planet probably got this name due to its red color; Mars is sometimes referred to as the Red Planet. (An interesting side note: the Roman god Mars was a god of agriculture before becoming associated with the Greek Ares; those in favor of colonizing1 and terraforming Mars may prefer this symbolism.) The name of the month March derives2 from Mars.
Mars has been known since prehistoric3 times. Of course, it has been extensively studied with ground-based observatories4. But even very large telescopes find Mars a difficult target, it's just too small. It is still a favorite of science fiction writers as the most favorable place in the Solar System (other than Earth!) for human habitation. But the famous canals seen by Lowell and others were, unfortunately, just as imaginary as Barsoomian princesses.
The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner5 4 in 1965. Several others followed including Mars 2, the first spacecraft to land on Mars and the two Viking landers in 1976. Ending a long 20 year hiatus, Mars Pathfinder landed successfully on Mars on 1997 July 4. In 2004 the Mars Expedition Rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars sending back geologic6 data and many pictures; they are still operating after more than a year on Mars. Three Mars orbiters (Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey7, and Mars Express) are also currently in operation.
Mars' orbit is significantly elliptical. One result of this is a temperature variation of about 30 C at the subsolar point between aphelion8 and perihelion. This has a major influence on Mars' climate. While the average temperature on Mars is about 218 K (-55 C, -67 F), Martian surface temperatures range widely from as little as 140 K (-133 C, -207 F) at the winter pole to almost 300 K (27 C, 80 F) on the day side during summer.
Though Mars is much smaller than Earth, its surface area is about the same as the land surface area of Earth.
Mars has some of the most highly varied9 and interesting terrain10 of any of the terrestrial planets, some of it quite spectacular:
Olympus Mons: the largest mountain in the Solar System rising 24 km (78,000 ft.) above the surrounding plain. Its base is more than 500 km in diameter and is rimmed11 by a cliff 6 km (20,000 ft) high.
Tharsis: a huge bulge12 on the Martian surface that is about 4000 km across and 10 km high.
Valles Marineris: a system of canyons13 4000 km long and from 2 to 7 km deep (top of page);
Hellas Planitia: an impact crater14 in the southern hemisphere over 6 km deep and 2000 km in diameter.
Much of the Martian surface is very old and cratered15, but there are also much younger rift16 valleys, ridges17, hills and plains. (None of this is visible in any detail with a telescope, even the Hubble Space Telescope; all this information comes from the spacecraft that we've sent to Mars.)
The southern hemisphere of Mars is predominantly ancient cratered highlands somewhat similar to the Moon. In contrast, most of the northern hemisphere consists of plains which are much younger, lower in elevation18 and have a much more complex history. An abrupt19 elevation change of several kilometers seems to occur at the boundary. The reasons for this global dichotomy and abrupt boundary are unknown (some speculate that they are due to a very large impact shortly after Mars' accretion). Mars Global Surveyor has produced a nice 3D map of Mars that clearly shows these features.
The interior of Mars is known only by inference from data about the surface and the bulk statistics of the planet. The most likely scenario20 is a dense21 core about 1700 km in radius22, a molten rocky mantle23 somewhat denser24 than the Earth's and a thin crust. Data from Mars Global Surveyor indicates that Mars' crust is about 80 km thick in the southern hemisphere but only about 35 km thick in the north. Mars' relatively25 low density26 compared to the other terrestrial planets indicates that its core probably contains a relatively large fraction of sulfur27 in addition to iron (iron and iron sulfide).
Like Mercury and the Moon, Mars appears to lack active plate tectonics at present; there is no evidence of recent horizontal motion of the surface such as the folded mountains so common on Earth. With no lateral28 plate motion, hot-spots under the crust stay in a fixed29 position relative to the surface. This, along with the lower surface gravity, may account for the Tharsis bulge and its enormous volcanoes. There is no evidence of current volcanic30 activity. However, data from Mars Global Surveyor indicates that Mars very likely did have tectonic activity sometime in the past.
There is very clear evidence of erosion in many places on Mars including large floods and small river systems. At some time in the past there was clearly some sort of fluid on the surface. Liquid water is the obvious fluid but other possibilities exist. There may have been large lakes or even oceans; the evidence for which was strengthened by some very nice images of layered terrain taken by Mars Global Surveyor and the mineralology results from MER Opportunity. Most of these points to wet episodes that occurred only briefly31 and very long ago; the age of the erosion channels is estimated at about nearly 4 billion years. However, images from Mars Express released in early 2005 show what appears to be a frozen sea that was liquid very recently (maybe 5 million years ago). Confirmation32 of this interpretation33 would be a very big deal indeed! (Valles Marineris was NOT created by running water. It was formed by the stretching and cracking of the crust associated with the creation of the Tharsis bulge.)
Early in its history, Mars was much more like Earth. As with Earth almost all of its carbon dioxide was used up to form carbonate rocks. But lacking the Earth's plate tectonics, Mars is unable to recycle any of this carbon dioxide back into its atmosphere and so cannot sustain a significant greenhouse effect. The surface of Mars is therefore much colder than the Earth would be at that distance from the Sun.
Mars has a very thin atmosphere composed mostly of the tiny amount of remaining carbon dioxide (95.3%) plus nitrogen (2.7%), argon (1.6%) and traces of oxygen (0.15%) and water (0.03%). The average pressure on the surface of Mars is only about 7 millibars (less than 1% of Earth's), but it varies greatly with altitude from almost 9 millibars in the deepest basins to about 1 millibar at the top of Olympus Mons. But it is thick enough to support very strong winds and vast dust storms that on occasion engulf34 the entire planet for months. Mars' thin atmosphere produces a greenhouse effect but it is only enough to raise the surface temperature by 5 degrees (K); much less than what we see on Venus and Earth.
Early telescopic observations revealed that Mars has permanent ice caps at both poles; they're visible even with a small telescope. We now know that they're composed of water ice and solid carbon dioxide (dry ice). The ice caps exhibit a layered structure with alternating layers of ice with varying concentrations of dark dust. In the northern summer the carbon dioxide completely sublimes35, leaving a residual36 layer of water ice. ESA's Mars Express has shown that a similar layer of water ice exists below the southern cap as well. The mechanism37 responsible for the layering is unknown but may be due to climatic changes related to long-term changes in the inclination38 of Mars' equator to the plane of its orbit. There may also be water ice hidden below the surface at lower latitudes39. The seasonal40 changes in the extent of the polar caps changes the global atmospheric41 pressure by about 25%.
Recent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed that the conditions during the Viking missions may not have been typical. Mars' atmosphere now seems to be both colder and dryer42 than measured by the Viking landers.
The Viking landers performed experiments to determine the existence of life on Mars. The results were somewhat ambiguous but most scientists now believe that they show no evidence for life on Mars (there is still some controversy43, however). Optimists44 point out that only two tiny samples were measured and not from the most favorable locations. More experiments will be done by future missions to Mars.
A small number of meteorites46 (the SNC meteorites) are believed to have originated on Mars.
On 1996 Aug 6, David McKay et al announced what they thought might be evidence of ancient Martian microorganisms in the meteorite45 ALH84001. Though there is still some controversy, the majority of the scientific community has not accepted this conclusion. If there is or was life on Mars, we still haven't found it.
Large, but not global, weak magnetic fields exist in various regions of Mars. This unexpected finding made by Mars Global Surveyor just days after it entered Mars orbit. They are probably remnants of an earlier global field that has since disappeared. This may have important implications for the structure of Mars' interior and for the past history of its atmosphere and hence for the possibility of ancient life.
When it is in the nighttime sky, Mars is easily visible with the unaided eye. Mars is a difficult but rewarding target for an amateur telescope though only for the three or four months each martian year when it is closest to Earth. Its apparent size and brightness varies greatly according to its relative position to the Earth. There are several Web sites that show the current position of Mars (and the other planets) in the sky. More detailed47 and customized charts can be created with a planetarium48 program.
Mars' Satellites
Mars has two tiny satellites which orbit very close to the martian surface:
Distance Radius Mass
Satellite (000 km) (km) (kg) Discoverer Date
--------- -------- ------ ------- ---------- ----
Phobos 9 11 1.08e16 Hall 1877
Deimos 23 6 1.80e15 Hall 1877
(Distance is measured from the center of Mars).
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