MARS THE RED PLANET

BASIC FACTS

Mars is the only planet whose surface can be seen in detail from the earth. It is reddish in color and the ancient Romans considered it to be the god of war. ,

Mars is like the earth in some ways. Its day is about the same length as the earth's (24 hours 375 minute) though its year is about twice as long' (687 days). It has summer and winter seasons like those of the earth. Moreover, its atmosphere contains nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, argon and water-vapor. The surface features of both the planets are also similar.

SPECIAL FEATURES

People in the past believed that intelligent life must be there on Mars but the space-craft, that landed on Mars in 1976, found no signs of life there: Life would not be easy on this planet indeed for the following reasons:

1. Mars is much farther from the sun than the earth and so has very low temperatures (-124°C to -24°C).

2. The atmosphere of Mars is too thin to block the sun's harmful radiation.

3. Its atmosphere contains a high percentage of carbon dioxide, and it is not possible to breathe in it.

It is believed that Mars had large amounts of surface water millions of years ago; but almost none exists at present. It may be there in frozen state in its polar areas or beneath the crust of this planet.

The surface of Mars has bright areas, dark areas and polar areas but no oceans. Craters, deep gorges and river-beds are also visible on Mars through a telescope.

Mars has two moons whereas our earth has only one. They appear as dots to its left and right respectively.

Between Mars and Jupiter there are thousands of mini-planets that are, called asteroids.

IN MYTHOLOGY

In mythology, Mars was believed to be the god of conflict / war