Mars: The second smallest planet in the Solar System
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest of all the planets in the Solar System. It has a diameter of 6779 km (4212 miles) and has an average distance of about 228 million kilometres (228 million miles). from the Sun. Similar to Earth, Mars makes a full rotation every 24.6 hours. But it takes around 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun once. Mars’ axial tilt is about 25 degrees, which is again similar to Earth, meaning that Mars too experiences seasonal cycles.
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. They are small and aren’t as massive as our Moon. They are irregularly shaped and are believed to be captured asteroids. Phobos is the bigger and closer one to Mars and since it is moving towards Mars, it is believed that it would crash on Mars and break apart to form dusty rings around Mars. Deimos is smaller than Phobos and orbits two and a half times farther than Phobos.
Mars has a very thin atmosphere mostly made up of Carbon-Dioxide, Argon and Nitrogen. It does not offer much protection from asteroids, meteoroids and Solar radiation when compared to our Earth’s atmosphere meaning that is the reason why it is highly cratered. We can also see some Water ice clouds on Mars which are known to be the remnants of the vast oceans that were on the planet long back. Since the atmosphere is very thin, heat from the Sun easily escapes the planet. Sometimes, the winds are fast enough to form dust storms on it, making the surface invisible.
Mars’ surface has many big craters and mountains. The planet consists of the largest canyon (Valles Marineris) and the largest volcano (Olympus Mons) in the Solar System. Valles Marineris stretches about 4800 kilometres (3000 miles) across the planet and about 9 kilometres deep. Olympus Mons is 3 times as large as Mt. Everest on Earth.
It is believed that Mars had a Magnetosphere in the past but currently, the planet has no magnetosphere.
Currently, we have rovers and orbiters exploring the planet. We currently have the Curiosity Rover (NASA) and the Perseverance Rover (NASA) exploring the planet and many other orbiters like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA), the MAVEN (NASA) spacecraft and the Mars Orbiter Mission (ISRO) exploring the planet. Mars is the most explored planet in the Solar System.
