Mars

Image Source: http://www.nineplanets.org/mars.html

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also the seventh largest. Mars orbits the sun at a distance of 141,000 miles (1.52 AU). It has a diameter of 4221 miles and a mass of 6.4219e23kg. Mars is named for the god of War. Mars has been known about by humans since prehistoric times. In 1965 the first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4. The first spacecraft to land on the surface of Mars were the two Viking landers in 1976. One of the more successful recent missions is the Mars Pathfinder which landed on Mars on July 4, 1997. Mars's surface area is about that of Earth's land area. Recently it has been concluded that Mars almost certainly contained liquid water at some point in its history. Mars's atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide with traces of other gases. Mars has polar ice caps composed of solid CO₂. On August 6, 1996 scientists discovered a small bacterial like fossil in a meteorite believed to come from Mars.

          Distance Radius  Mass
Satellite (000 km)  (km)   (kg)   Discoverer Date
--------- -------- ------ ------- ---------- ----
Phobos        9      11   1.08e16   Hall     1877
Deimos       23       6   1.80e15   Hall     1877

The Solar System : Mars

created by Titan Miller,
Burlington Community High School Math Department, Burlington Community High School

last modified: December 17, 2002

URL: www.titanmiller.net/pages/mars.html