Fun Facts About Mars

Fun Facts About Mars: all 31, explained

1. Mars has a volcano about two and a half times as tall as Mount Everest.

   Olympus Mons on Mars rises about 22 kilometres above the surrounding plains, and its base is roughly the size of the state of Arizona. It is one of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System.

   Source: Olympus Mons (Wikipedia) · Fact card

2. Mars is red because it’s covered in rust.

   The dust and rocks on Mars contain a lot of iron oxide, the same compound as rust. Fine red dust blown into the air gives the sky an orange-pink tint too.

   Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

3. Sunsets on Mars are blue.

   Fine Martian dust scatters blue light forward, near the direction of the Sun. As the Sun sets, the sky around it glows blue, the reverse of Earth.

   Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

4. Mars has two small, potato-shaped moons named Fear and Dread.

   Phobos and Deimos are named after the sons of Ares, the Greek god of war, and mean fear and dread. Phobos is slowly spiralling closer to Mars and will eventually break apart or crash into it.

   Source: Moons of Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

5. A day on Mars is only about 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth.

   One Martian day, called a sol, lasts about 24 hours and 40 minutes. A Martian year, though, is 687 Earth days.

   Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

6. A year on Mars lasts 687 Earth days.

   Mars is farther from the Sun than Earth, so it takes almost twice as long to complete an orbit.

   Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

7. Mars has a canyon system that would stretch across the United States.

   Valles Marineris is about 4,000 kilometers long and up to 7 kilometers deep, making the Grand Canyon look small.

   Source: Valles Marineris (Wikipedia) · Fact card

8. The air on Mars is about 100 times thinner than Earth’s.

   The Martian atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, and its pressure at the surface is less than 1% of Earth’s, so liquid water would quickly boil or freeze.

   Source: Atmosphere of Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

9. You would weigh only about 38% as much on Mars.

   Mars is smaller and less massive than Earth, so its surface gravity is about 0.38 of ours. A 100-pound child would weigh about 38 pounds there.

   Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

10. Mars has ice caps at both poles.

    The polar caps are made of water ice with a seasonal layer of frozen carbon dioxide that grows in winter and shrinks in summer.

    Source: Martian polar ice caps (Wikipedia) · Fact card

11. Dust storms on Mars can cover the whole planet.

    Global dust storms can last for weeks or months. One in 2018 blocked so much sunlight that NASA’s solar-powered Opportunity rover lost power and never woke up.

    Source: Opportunity (rover) (Wikipedia) · Fact card

12. A small helicopter made the first powered flight on another planet, on Mars in 2021.

    NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew on Mars on 19 April 2021 and went on to make 72 flights, far more than the five originally planned.

    Source: Ingenuity (helicopter) (Wikipedia) · Fact card

13. Mars is the only planet known to be inhabited entirely by robots.

    Rovers, landers and orbiters from several countries have explored Mars since the 1970s, including NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers and China’s Zhurong.

    Source: Exploration of Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

14. Mars is about half as wide as Earth.

    Its diameter is about 6,779 kilometers, roughly 53% of Earth’s, but its land area is about the same as all of Earth’s dry land.

    Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

15. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun.

    It orbits at an average distance of about 228 million kilometers, about one and a half times as far as Earth.

    Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

16. Mars is named after the Roman god of war.

    Its blood-red color reminded ancient observers of war. Its moons Phobos and Deimos are named after the sons of the Greek war god Ares.

    Source: Mars in culture (Wikipedia) · Fact card

17. Mars has seasons, like Earth.

    Its axis is tilted about 25 degrees, close to Earth’s 23.4, so it has seasons, but each lasts roughly twice as long.

    Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

18. Mars is very cold: around minus 60°C on average.

    Temperatures can reach about 20°C at the equator on a summer afternoon and fall below minus 120°C at the poles.

    Source: Climate of Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

19. Mars once had rivers and lakes.

    Dried riverbeds, deltas and minerals that form in water show that liquid water flowed on Mars billions of years ago.

    Source: Water on Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

20. The first successful landing on Mars was in 1976.

    NASA’s Viking 1 lander touched down in July 1976 and sent back the first photos from the Martian surface.

    Source: Viking 1 (Wikipedia) · Fact card

21. A NASA rover has been collecting rock samples on Mars to bring back to Earth.

    Perseverance, which landed in Jezero Crater in 2021, seals rock cores in tubes for a future sample-return mission.

    Source: Perseverance (rover) (Wikipedia) · Fact card

22. Pieces of Mars have landed on Earth.

    More than 300 meteorites found on Earth have been identified as Martian, blasted off Mars by asteroid impacts.

    Source: Martian meteorite (Wikipedia) · Fact card

23. Mars comes closest to Earth about every 26 months.

    At these oppositions Mars can come within about 56 million kilometers, which is when space agencies usually launch missions.

    Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

24. The daytime sky on Mars is a butterscotch color.

    Fine dust in the air scatters light, giving the Martian sky a pinkish-tan color by day.

    Source: Atmosphere of Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

25. Mars has a huge volcanic region called Tharsis.

    Tharsis is home to four giant volcanoes, including Olympus Mons, and is so massive it may have shifted the planet’s tilt.

    Source: Tharsis (Wikipedia) · Fact card

26. You could jump almost three times as high on Mars.

    With gravity only about 38% of Earth’s, the same jump would take you nearly three times higher.

    Source: Gravity of Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

27. Sunlight on Mars is less than half as strong as on Earth.

    Because Mars is farther from the Sun, the light reaching it is about 43% as intense, which matters for solar-powered rovers.

    Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

28. From Mars, Earth looks like a bright evening or morning star.

    Rovers have photographed Earth as a small bright dot in the Martian sky.

    Source: Earth from Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

29. Mars has one of the biggest impact craters in the solar system.

    Hellas Planitia is about 2,300 kilometers across and about 7 kilometers deep.

    Source: Hellas Planitia (Wikipedia) · Fact card

30. Scientists have detected puzzling traces of methane on Mars.

    NASA’s Curiosity rover measured small, changing amounts of methane, a gas that on Earth is often made by living things, though it can also come from geology.

    Source: Atmosphere of Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card

31. Mars lost its global magnetic field long ago.

    Without a magnetic shield, the solar wind gradually stripped away much of Mars’s atmosphere.

    Source: Mars (Wikipedia) · Fact card