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"We conclude that ice may have been an important medium of lubrication of landslides on Mars, even in equatorial areas like Valles Marineris" (the Grand Canyon of Mars). [315], A comic figure of an intelligent Martian, Marvin the Martian, appeared in Haredevil Hare (1948) as a character in the Looney Tunes animated cartoons of Warner Brothers, and has continued as part of popular culture to the present. Most often this requires the orbit of a planet to lie within the habitable zone, which for the Sun extends from just beyond Venus to about the semi-major axis of Mars. [119] The streaks contain hydrated salts, perchlorates, which have water molecules in their crystal structure. [279][280] In Ancient Greece, the planet was known as Πυρόεις. [190], Mars's average distance from the Sun is roughly 230 million km (143 million mi), and its orbital period is 687 (Earth) days. [clarification needed] For the last 35,000 years, the orbit of Mars has been getting slightly more eccentric because of the gravitational effects of the other planets. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer, Dusty, glass-rich sand dunes like these found just south of the north polar ice cap could cover much of Mars. The lengths of the Martian seasons are about twice those of Earth's because Mars's greater distance from the Sun leads to the Martian year being about two Earth years long.

The surface of Mars is primarily composed of tholeiitic basalt,[62] although parts are more silica-rich than typical basalt and may be similar to andesitic rocks on Earth or silica glass. The unstable orbit of Phobos would seem to point towards a relatively recent capture. The precession is the slow motion of the spin pole of Mars as it moves along a cone in space (similar to a spinning top). The streaks are dark at first and get lighter with age.
A perihelic opposition of Mars occurred on September 5, 1877. Mars is nearly, or perhaps totally, geologically dead; the end of volcanic activity has apparently stopped the recycling of chemicals and minerals between the surface and interior of the planet. Any life that ever existed on Mars would have had to cope with the radiation, perhaps by thriving underground. ", The Galileo connection: resolving conflicts between science & the Bible, "New Online Tools Bring NASA's Journey to Mars to a New Generation", "Is the Great Galactic Ghoul losing his appetite? Thus, only highly refractory and/or well-protected (sub-surface) organics or life forms are likely to survive. Parts of the southern highlands include detectable amounts of high-calcium pyroxenes. 373-393, January 10, 1971. [124][125], In February 2020, it was found that dark streaks called recurring slope lineae (RSL), which appear seasonably, are caused by briny water flowing for a few days annually. [28] In January 2004, the Mars Exploration Rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity, both landed on Mars.
[25] On 20 July 1976, Viking 1 performed the first successful landing on the Martian surface. 2, pp. Scientists Say Mars Has a Liquid Iron Core This artist's concept of the interior of Mars shows a hot liquid core that is about one-half the radius of the planet. [181], Impact glass, formed by the impact of meteors, which on Earth can preserve signs of life, has been found on the surface of the impact craters on Mars. [31][32][33][34] Liquid water on the surface of Mars cannot exist due to low atmospheric pressure, which is less than 1% of the atmospheric pressure on Earth, except at the lowest elevations for short periods. [195], The current understanding of planetary habitability — the ability of a world to develop environmental conditions favorable to the emergence of life — favors planets that have liquid water on their surface. As a result, the seasons in the southern hemisphere are more extreme and the seasons in the northern are milder than would otherwise be the case.

The distance at close approach varies between about 54 and 103 million km (34 and 64 million mi) due to the planets' elliptical orbits, which causes comparable variation in angular size. As of 2018[update], Mars is host to eight functioning spacecraft: six in orbit — 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, Mars Orbiter Mission and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter — and two on the surface — Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity (rover) and InSight (lander). Flakes in the north measure between 8 to 22 microns and those in the south are just 4 to 13 microns. [130], The caps at both poles consist primarily (70%) of water ice. [97] Elsewhere, particularly on the oldest areas of the Martian surface, finer-scale, dendritic networks of valleys are spread across significant proportions of the landscape. [289] When the telescope became available, the diurnal parallax of Mars was again measured in an effort to determine the Sun-Earth distance. [300], Once spacecraft visited the planet during NASA's Mariner missions in the 1960s and 1970s, these concepts were radically broken. Atmospheric pressure on the surface today ranges from a low of 30 Pa (0.030 kPa) on Olympus Mons to over 1,155 Pa (1.155 kPa) in Hellas Planitia, with a mean pressure at the surface level of 600 Pa (0.60 kPa). [81][82][83][84] This is a very high concentration and makes the Martian soil toxic (see also Martian soil toxicity). Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! [38][39] The volume of water ice in the south polar ice cap, if melted, would be sufficient to cover the entire planetary surface to a depth of 11 metres (36 ft). [276] During Sumerian times, Nergal was a minor deity of little significance,[276] but, during later times, his main cult center was the city of Nineveh. [68], It is thought that, during the Solar System's formation, Mars was created as the result of a stochastic process of run-away accretion of material from the protoplanetary disk that orbited the Sun. [149] Zero altitude was defined by the height at which there is 610.5 Pa (6.105 mbar) of atmospheric pressure. [17][18] The latter refers to the effect of the iron oxide prevalent on Mars's surface, which gives it a reddish appearance distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye.

That is also the planet's name in Hebrew, מאדים ma'adim, which is derived from אדום adom, meaning 'red'. [310], Early in December 1900, we received from Lowell Observatory in Arizona a telegram that a shaft of light had been seen to project from Mars (the Lowell observatory makes a specialty of Mars) lasting seventy minutes. [277] The existence of Mars as a wandering object in the night sky was recorded by the ancient Egyptian astronomers and, by 1534 BCE, they were familiar with the retrograde motion of the planet. Pseudo-scientific speculations about the Face on Mars and other enigmatic landmarks spotted by space probes have meant that ancient civilizations continue to be a popular theme in science fiction, especially in film.[317]. [299], Even in the 1960s, articles were published on Martian biology, putting aside explanations other than life for the seasonal changes on Mars. [58] This iron(II) sulfide core is thought to be twice as rich in lighter elements as Earth's. Mars is a differentiated, terrestrial planet.


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