Name: Bridget D.
ProgramYear: 2006
Submit Date: May 27, 2006
Review Date: Jun 16, 2006

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and is the seventh largest planet. Mars is a little more than half the size of Earth and has one-third the gravity that Earth has. Mars has often fascinated people all over the world; scientists, astronomers, and just as equally, the general public. With the naked eye Mars just looks like a red star as it reflects the sunlight back to Earth. But unlike the stars Mars is closer to Earth so it moves relative to the stars in the background. Mars was named after the Greek god of war, Ares. It got its name because of its red coloration. The reason Mars looks red is because it is covered in ferric oxide, or rusty iron. The core of Mars is thought to be made up of iron, or possibly a mixture of sulfur and iron. Mars has a thin atmosphere that is composed primarily of carbon dioxide with small amounts of other gases. The air is thin and unbreathable and contains 95 percent carbon dioxide, 3 percent nitrogen, 1.5 percent argon, trace amounts of water, and no oxygen. An interesting event that takes place on Mars because of this thin atmosphere is the sunrise and sunset. The sun takes on a blue appearance and the skies turn a purplish coloration. The Martian air has only about 1/1000th of the water that Earth has in its air. This is still enough water to condense out and form clouds. In the early morning, small patches of fog can even be seen in some of the valleys. Physical features on Mars look like dried river beds and shorelines. This is evidence that water may have once flowed on Mars. Another thing that the atmosphere sometimes causes is seasonal dust storms. These usually occur during the summer. They have been known to cover the entire planet with fine red dust. It is thought that the cause of these dust storms is that airborne dust particles absorb sunlight and warm the Martian atmosphere in their vicinity. The warm pockets of air rush towards colder spots and create winds that blow up more dust. Finally one thing leads to another and the entire planet is covered in flying dust. One thing that Mars has plenty of is volcanoes. Many of the larger ones are in the Tharsis province in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The largest volcano in the solar system is on Mars, it is Olympus Mons. It is a giant shield volcano similar to the ones that make up the Hawaiian Islands. The youngest lava flows on Olympus Mons are only 20 to 200 million years old and are probably the latest volcanic activity on Mars. On Mars there are many craters and canyons. The Grand Canyon in Arizona doesn’t even hold a candle to some of the canyons. The Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars was probably formed by tectonic forces. But it has also been expanded by landslides, wind and water erosion, and by collapse. They are known to be about 11 kilometers deep as compared to Grand Canyon’s 1.5 kilometers. The many craters on Earth continue to be virtually erased by natural causes like wind, water, earthquakes, and such but since there is a major lack of such things on Mars many of the craters can be still be seen. One of the largest impact craters, the Hellas Basin, is nearly 2.000 kilometers across. Some of the craters have flow like patterns around them and are thought to be made by a mudflow across Mars. Images sent back to Earth from Mars suggest that there was once free-flowing water on Mars. They show channels and valley networks that look as if they once contained flowing water. Some are thought to even have been created by small springs. Since liquid water can’t exist at the subfreezing temperatures on Mars, the evidence of ancient river channels and networks implies that Mars at one point in time had a thicker greenhouse atmosphere. Mars has both north and south polar ice caps. They grow and shrink during the different seasons. The northern permanent ice cap is water ice but the southern permanent ice cap is a mixture of water and carbon dioxide. Both seasonal caps are carbon dioxide. The southern cap at its smallest size is about 249 miles across. It looks reddish because of the dust that has been caught up in the ice. Mars has two moons, both of which are much smaller than our own moon here on Earth. Deimos is the moon that is more distant from Mars and measures 15 kilometers by 11 kilometers and the surface is smoother than the other moon, Phobos. This is possibly because of a thicker layer of debris, or regolith. Deimos orbits Mars once every 30 hours. Phobos is closer to Mars and orbits around about every 7.7 hours and is gradually getting closer by about 0.7 inch a year. In about 40 million years Phobos will either crash into Mars or be torn into pieces that will continue to orbit as a ring of debris. Both moons are thought to contain up to 20 percent water and both are irregular in shape. Phobos means “fear” and Deimos means “terror” or “panic”. Sources used for both essay and presentation: mgs-mager.gsfc.nasa.gov/Kids/funfacts.html www.planetary.org/mars/mars.html www.kidsastronomy.com/mars.htm www.solarviews.com/eng/marsvolc.htm starryskies.com/articles/2003/05/mars.html www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Mars/MarsThePlanet/MarsDustStorms.html www.nineplanets.org/mars.html dictionary.com barsoom.msss.com/http/ps/volcanoes.html www.lpi.usra.edu/expmars/basicfacts.html nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/vikinglander2-2.jpg antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970915.html toon.heindl-internet.de/usa/b800/047160012-grand-canyon.jpg My final project is a Flyer that is folded. I am sending it as a jpeg file, but I will be bringing a hard copy of the flyer with me to NASA.