MARS
Where is Mars?
• 4th planet in our solar system.• Last of the rocky planets.• Our solar system is in the Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.• Our sun is 1 of about 100 billion suns in our galaxy.• MW is just 1 of roughly 100 billion in the visible universe.
How did it get its name?
• View of Mars through and 8” telescope on 6/11/2003.
• Mars appears as a ruby-red point of light in the night sky.
• Romans thought it looked like blood so they named it Mars after their god of War.
• Before the Romans, the Greeks also named it after their god of war, Ares.
What causes the color?
• Color panorama or Santa Maria Crater taken by the rover, Opportunity.
• Red color due to much of its surface being covered with iron-rich soil.
• Soil reacts with the small amounts of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere to form iron oxide (rust).
• Surface also has rocks of basalt, a dark volcanic rock.
• http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=14660&media_id=121735521
Most similar planet to Earth
• Roughly the same amount of land surface.• Mars is about half the size of
Earth but doesn’t have any surface water.
• Chemistry of atmospheres is similar at least as Earth is compared to other planets in our solar system.
• Large, sustained polar ice caps.• Similar tilt in their rotational
axises so they have strong seasons. http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/Sibling_Rivalry.html
Earth - Mars Comparison
Earth• Diameter: 12,756 km• Mass: 59.7 x 1025 kg• Moons: 1
• 3,474 km (2149 miles)
• Distance from sun:• 150 million km (93 million miles)
Mars• 6794 km• 6.4 x 1025 kg• 2: named after sons of Ares• Phobos (fear) – 21 km• Deimos (panic) – 12 km
• 228 million km (1.52 times as far as Earth)
• Distance from Earth:• 56 – 399 million km (35 - 249 million miles)
Mars’ Surface
• Temperature: cold.• -125 – 25 °C (-190 – 75 °F).• Earth’s record low temperature = -89.2 °C (-128.6 °F)
• At equator, surface temperature would change 38°F between your feet (70°F) and the top of your head (32°F).
• Surface Pressure: about 1/100th that of Earth.• Need a spacesuit to hold your internal organs in.
• Solid rocky crust.• Averages about 50km (31 miles) thick compared to Earth’s, 40km
(25 miles)• Ancient landscapes dominated by hundred of thousands of
impact craters (mostly seen in southern hemisphere).http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro-20080625.html
Largest in the Solar System
• Crater: Borealis Basin covers about 40% of surface.• (5,300 miles across, bigger than Pluto!)• Largest crater on Earth: Vredefort in South Africa, 300km, 186
miles.• Chicxulub (Mexican Yucatan) = 170km (thought to have killed
dinosaurs) • Canyon: Valles Marineris names after the space probe that
first took pictures of it, US Mariner 9.• 4,000km (2,500 miles) in length (distance across US) and 7km
deep.• Grand Canyon: 400km long by 1.8km deep.
• Volcano: Olympus Mons rises 27 km (16.7 miles) and about the size of the state of Arizona!
Polar Caps
- Made of frozen water and carbon dioxide.- Almost entirely frozen water that is up to 3km (1.8 miles) thick.- Northern cap is about 1,200km (745 miles) across in winter.
- Seasonal ice caps (entirely dry ice) is about 1m thick accumulate during the winter and sublimate during the summer.
- Colder southern ice cap is 1/3 of this but has much deeper ice.- Permanent dry ice cover of 8m deep.- Enough water in the southern ice cap alone to cover the whole planet to a depth of 11m (36 feet).
Water on Mars Video
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMO78Q4KKF_index_0.html
How do you get to Mars?
• http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=14660&media_id=121735521
• http://www.universetoday.com/14841/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-to-mars/