All about...#39 - Mars

Brought to you by MrBLOGGER

Position from Sun: fourth

Color: Mostly red and brown

Diameter: 4,220 miles

Mass: 6.4169 x 1023 kg

Moons: 2

Gases: Carbon dioxide, Argon, Oxygen, Nitrogen

Composition: Crust/Surface: iron ballistic rock, Mantle: silicate rock. Core: Iron, Nickle or Sulfur

Length of year: 687 earth days

Length of day: 24 hours, 37 minutes

Average distance from Sun: 142 million miles

Distance

Mars is the 4th planet from the Sun. Its climate is not the most habitable, as it is located 38 million miles from Earth. On the other side, it is 342 million miles from Jupiter and over 300 million miles from the Sun! In between, there lies the famous asteroid belt. It actually isn't that crowded there...

Moons

Mars has two moons, which are a little smaller than Earth's. They are called Phobos (the biggest one) and Deimos, which orbit next to the planet. They are named after Greek mythology. Interestingly, both were discovered at the same time in 1877 by Asaph Hall, who coined the names.

Orbit/Rotation

The orbit period of Mars is roughly 687 earth days. The title of the planet is 25.19 degrees.  Mars's cycle of eccentricity is 96,000 Earth years compared to Earth's cycle of 100,000 yearsThe closest distance between Earth and Mars will likely not happen for the next 25,000 years.

The name Mars even comes from the Roman god of war. And then comes the Martians. A Mars fever started after  Tesla claimed that Martians were picking up signals from Mars. Also, some people at the Lowell observatory in Arizona said they received some light signal.  This just told the world that many were exaggerating for suspense. Carl Sagan said, quote - "Mars has become a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears."

But as the world moved on, more and more people proved that wrong. Today, Mars is taught as one of the 8 planets in our Solar System. People remember it as the red planet.

There are many great books about Mars, the most famous one being National Geographic's - Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet. Written by Leonard David, it explains clearly and exceedingly the future of us and the red planet. Other books are also interesting, like the Postcards from Mars, and Mission to Mars - by Buzz Aldrin.

Mars is about half the size of Earth, being a very dry planet with having lots of Iron oxide (rust) which causes the planet to be red. On the inside, Mars has a dense metallic core, containing mostly iron and nickel, with a little bit of sulfur. Similar to the Earth, Mars has a denser core which is around less dense material. The core of Mars is surrounded by a Mantle, which is surrounded by a crust, which causes the seismic activity on Mars.

Surface-wise, the crust/surface of Mars is mostly composed of tholeiitic basalt. This is due to the different periods of asteroid and object bombardment on Mars. Now it gets interesting. Mars actually has soil! Martian soil has a basic pH of 7.7, which is toxic to humans though.

For a long time, humans have been trying to figure out if Mars has water. Very little water has been discovered until recent expeditions. Some suggest that there have actually been fossils of water animals near the poles of Mars, which explains why scientists have found ice on Mars.

Ever since human beings have discovered Mars, there have been thoughts of the Human civilization exploring and colonizing Mars. Let me tell you more.

Exploration

The exploration of Mars started in 1994 by NASA when it started the Mars exploration program. In 1997, the first orbiter was launched. In 2001, the Odyssey orbiter was launched too. In 2020, Perseverance was launched, with the goal of collecting dust and learning more about what we need to know to settle the planet.

Colonization

The most famous man with associated with the idea of settling and colonizing Mars would be Elon Musk. He wishes to send the first to Mars sometime in the next ten years. Musk said in January of last year that he plans to send a million people to Mars by 2050. He, with his famous company SpaceX, hopes to reach that goal. However, he has claimed that it will be a tough and hard task. On the other hand, another company named NASA is planning to train & send astronauts to Mars in the next 15 years. It will be a great feat for humans if they can send lots of volunteers to colonize a whole another planet.

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