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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 ". [21] [22] 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.
Mars has a dense core at its center between 930 and 1,300 miles (1,500 to 2,100 kilometers) in radius. It's made of iron, nickel, and sulfur. Surrounding the core is a rocky mantle between 770 and 1,170 miles (1,240 to 1,880 kilometers) thick, and above that, a crust made of iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium, and potassium.
May 6, 2024 · 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.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this video of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s 54th flight on Aug. 3, 2023. After performing a preflight “wiggle check” with its rotors, the helicopter takes off, hovers at an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters), and rotates to the left, before touching back down. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS.
Overview. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun – a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. Mars is also a dynamic planet with seasons, polar ice caps, canyons, extinct volcanoes, and evidence that it was even more active in the past. Mars is one of the most explored bodies in our solar system, and it's the only planet where ...
Mars Nearing Earth In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped this photo of the red planet 11 hours before its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years. How close? It was a mere 34,648,840 miles ...
In Depth. Mars is no place for the faint-hearted. It’s dry, rocky, and bitter cold. The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars is one of Earth's two closest planetary neighbors (Venus is the other). Mars is one of the easiest planets to spot in the night sky – it looks like a bright red point of light. Despite being inhospitable to humans ...
