Learn

Have you ever thought about what it might be like on another planet?

People have wondered about Mars for hundreds of years. Often known as the Red Planet because of its color in the sky, Mars was seen throughout history as a suspicious omen — a symbol of war and agression. Today, scientists are studying Mars for signs of past life on the planet.

Even as recently as the 1930’s, people on Earth feared an invasion from this mysterious planet when a 1938 radio broadcast of a play called “War of the Worlds” scared many listeners into believing that space crafts from Mars had landed on Earth.

Recently, we Earthlings landed two rovers on the planet Mars. For seven long months, two rovers named Spirit and Opportunity, flew through space to the planet Mars, and in January, 2004, a Mars rover from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) landed on the surface of Mars to loud cheers from the scientists and engineers who sent it there.

We now know that there is no intelligent civilization on Mars, but clues on the planet’s surface suggest that at one time, the planet may have been capable of supporting some type of life-forms. Today, this dusty, windy and cold planet is the subject of great scientific study.

There is so much interest in Mars because, of all the planets in the solar system, Mars is the most similar to Earth. The presence of water on the planet and the relatively mild temperatures give scientists hope that one day the planet may be able to support human life.

Here are some facts about Mars and the exploration of the Red Planet:

• Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, the next beyond Earth
• Mars revolves around the Sun once every 687 Earth days
• The length of a Martian day is 24 hours, 39 min., 35 sec.
• Winds on Mars reach up to 80 miles per hour
• -64 F (-53 C) is the average temperature on Mars
• The temperature on Mars ranges from -199 F (-128 C) during polar night to 80 F (27 C) at the equator during midday
• Gravity on Mars is 38 percent as strong as Earth’s
• Mars has two moons, each only a few miles wide: Phobos (larger moon) and Deimos (smaller)
• The average diameter of Mars is 4,212 miles (6,780 kilometers) — about half the size of Earth, but twice the size of Earth’s moon