10 CRAZY Facts About Mars: #11 Will Shock You!!

October 2, 2015 News

You might think you know all about the fourth planet from the sun, but do you? Here are some CRAZY facts about our beloved Red Planet.

 

  1. Mars has seasons! Yes, just like our home planet, Mars experiences a tilt in its axis, which causes it to experience a spring, summer, fall, and winter because the planet gets different amounts of sunlight on its surface as it orbits the sun. The seasons are roughly twice as long as the ones we have on Earth, but they do still happen! If you spring for a trip to Mars someday, you might just fall in love with the familiarity of the seasons. It’s just a little taste of home on an otherwise alien world!
  2. Mars has weaker gravity than Earth! Okay, this one is kind of a no-brainer, because Mars has a diameter that is almost 2,000 miles smaller than Earth’s, but the gravity on Mars is considerably weaker than what we feel here on Earth! In fact, it’s about 38% the gravity of Earth. What would that mean for astronauts or future Mars colonists? The weaker gravity would mean that we would have considerably less stress on our muscles and skeletal structures, and over time the bodies of the human visitors would evolve to need those structures less and less. Also, any trampolining done on the Martian surface would be incredibly fun!
  3. Mars is TINY! Well, not compared to us as human beings, but in the grand scheme of our solar system, Mars is pretty small. It is less dense, less massive, and just plain smaller than our own Earth. It would take about 6 Mars’s to fill up the volume of Earth!
  4. But a year on Mars is quite long! On Earth, our year is 365 days. Mars has a year that lasts 687 days, which is almost twice as long as ours. Or-bit you hadn’t heard that one before!
  5. Mars likes to get “close” to Earth. This is relative, of course. At its closest point of orbit, Mars is still tens of millions of miles away from us. But at those close points, which happen every 26 months or so, we get awesome views of our red neighbor in our nighttime sky!
  6. What atmosphere? Mars has an atmosphere that is 100 times less dense than the one we have here on Earth. While our atmosphere is nitrogen and oxygen rich, the Martian atmosphere is composed primarily of carbon dioxide. With an atmosphere like that, Mars would take your breath away!
  7. Want to lose a few pounds? Just head to Mars! If you weighed 100 pounds here on Earth, you would weigh only 38 pounds on Mars! Of course, weight is simply an interaction between gravity and matter, and it is only in our feeble human lives that our weight has any emotional or universal relevance, but if you want an ACTUAL lose-weight-fast trick, head on over to Mars!
  8. Mars has intense dust storms! This fact is sure to blow you away. Mars has dust storms fueled by sunshine! Yes, solar wind blows the red dust from the dry, arid Martian surface around and around, primarily originating from one deep crater where there was a large impact long ago.
  9. Mars is the only planet in the universe completely inhabited by robots! That’s right, there are four rovers that make up the known population of Mars. Sojourner, Opportunity, Spirit, and Curiosity were all sent to explore and take samples and pictures of Martian soil, air, and possible life. While only Curiosity and Opportunity are still active, all four remain on the surface of the Red Planet. We may be reunited with them someday if we travel to Mars, and I for one welcome our future robot overlords.
  10. MARS HAS EVIDENCE OF WATER! That’s right, NASA has recently publicly announced that they have found evidence of flowing water on the Martian surface. The water causes dark streaks in the soil, and they seem to grow in the summertime and shrink in the wintertime. Now that water has been confirmed on another world, the public and scientists alike are thirsty for more information, and hopefully NASA will be able to provide it in the coming years.
  11. Origins Of Life explores the Martian surface! Check it out 10/09/15 and 10/23/15, or call us to schedule a private showing if you want to learn more CRAZY facts about Mars!