Facts about Mars

Want to learn facts about Mars? Lo and behold, here they are.

• Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is around 227,940,000 km from the Sun.
• The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war.
• The landmass of Mars and Earth is very similar. Mars has a similar landmass because water covers about 70% of Earth’s surface. The surface gravity of Mars is about 37% the gravity found on Earth. This means that on Mars you could, in theory, jump 3 times higher than you could on Earth.
  
• Pieces of Mars have been found on Earth. Trace amounts of the Martian atmosphere were within meteorites that the planet ejected. These meteorites orbited the solar system for millions of years before eventually entering the Earth’s atmosphere and crashing to the ground. 
• The tallest mountain known in the solar system is on Mars. Olympus Mons is a 21 km high and 600 km diameter shield volcano that was formed billions of years ago. It is the second highest mountain in the entire solar system, topped only by the Rheasilvia central peak on the asteroid Vesta, which is 22 km high.
• Mars has huge dust storms; it's the largest in our solar system.
  
• Temperatures can vary. When Mars is closest to the Sun in its orbit the southern hemisphere points toward the Sun and this causes a very short but fiercely hot summer. In the north, it experiences a cold winter. When the planet is farthest from the Sun, Mars experiences a long and mild summer because the northern hemisphere points toward the Sun. This is compared with a cold and lengthy winter in the south.
• Mars is the only other planet besides Earth that has polar ice caps.
• With the exception of Earth, Mars is the most hospitable to life. A number of space missions are planning for the next decade the further increase our understanding of Mars and when it has the potential for extraterrestrial life, as well as whether it may be a viable planet for a colony. Mars One is a good but controversial example of this, possibly having inhabitants by 2023.
• Mars takes 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun. Its orbit radius is about 227,840,000 km.

Final Quick Stats:

IF YOU READ THIS, MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!