Search results
People also ask
What is the most interesting fact about Mars?
What are five interesting about Mars?
Why is Mars so much smaller than Earth?
Learn about Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, and its potential for life, seasons, moons, and more. Explore its structure, surface, atmosphere, and history with NASA's images and data.
2 days ago · Mars is the fourth planet in the solar system in order of distance from the Sun and the seventh in size and mass. It is a periodically conspicuous reddish object in the night sky. There are intriguing clues that billions of years ago Mars was even more Earth-like than today.
- How far is Mars from Earth?Mars is less than 56 million km (35 million miles) from Earth at its closest approach, but it recedes to almost 400 million km (250 million miles)...
- What is the size of Mars?Mars is the second smallest planet in the solar system, only larger than Mercury and slightly more than half the size of Earth. It has an equatoria...
- What do Mars and Earth have in common?Mars is similar to Earth in many ways. Like Earth, it has clouds, winds, a roughly 24-hour day, seasonal weather patterns, polar ice caps, volcanoe...
- What is the temperature on Mars?The characteristic temperature on Mars in the lower atmosphere is about 200 kelvins (K; −100 °F, −70 °C), which is generally colder than the averag...
- When did Viking 1 and Viking 2 land on Mars?The Viking landers are two robotic U.S. spacecraft launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the study of the planet...
- Should humans colonize space on Mars?Space colonization, on Mars or elsewhere, is widely debated. Some argue humans have a moral duty to save our species from extinction, and space col...
- Moons
- Olympus Mons
- Valles Marineris
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. They were discovered in 1877 by astronomer Asaph Hall, who named them for the Latin terms “fear” and “panic”. These moons are thought to be captured asteroids and are among the smallest natural satellites in the solar system.
Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system – Olympus Mons. It measures some 600 kilometres across and rises nearly 27 kilometres above the surrounding terrain. It is a shield volcano built by the continuous action of flowing lava over millions and millions of years that began some 3 billion years ago. Olympus Mons is part of a complex of volc...
The Valles Marineris is an extensive canyon system on the Mars equator. It is 4,200 kilometres long and, in places, is 7 kilometres deep. On Earth, it would span the entire North American continent and beyond. Mars has has a very primitive form of plate tectonics, and the action of two plates past each other began splitting the surface some 3.5 bil...
Learn about Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest in the solar system. Discover its features, moons, seasons, volcanoes, dust storms, and more.
Learn about Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, and its history, climate, and moons. Explore the robotic missions and human plans to study and visit the Red Planet.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. The surface of Mars is orange-red because it is covered in iron(III) oxide dust, giving it the nickname "the Red Planet". Mars is among the brightest objects in Earth's sky, and its high-contrast albedo features have made it a common subject for telescope viewing.
