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Mars Basics
Size & Distance
Smaller than Earth (0.532x)Mars diam ~ 6779 km (4212
miles)Earth diam ~ 12,742 km
(7918 miles)8 Mars would fit inside the
Earth!
Size & Distance
Size & Distance Smaller than Earth (0.532x)
Mars diam ~ 6779 km (4212 miles) Earth diam ~ 12,742 km (7918
miles) 8 Mars would fit inside the Earth!
1.5 AU from the sun (~140 million miles)
0.5 AU from the Earth (~43 million miles)
SCALE!!!
Scale
Using a 12-inch Earth globe and 6-inch Mars globe as a scale:
Q: How far away do you think Mars would be?
A: 1.4 km (~0.87 miles)
LPI
McDonald’s
Rotation & Revolution
One Martian day (sol) is 24 hours and 37 minutes
One Martian year is 687 Earth days, almost two Earth years
Seasons
Like Earth, Mars tiltsThis tilt contributes to seasons, orbit also contributes
Atmosphere
Yep. Mars has an atmosphere.
~95% CO2, ~3% N2, ~2% Ar; traces of O2, CO
Surface pressure ~0.006 atm (~1/100th Earth’s atmosphere)
Gerard Kuiper made spectroscopic observations of CO2 in the atmosphere in 1952; presumed to be a minor constituent until 1965
Interior
Core, mantle, crust
No magnetic field today; data support one in the past
Mars is ColdAverage temp: -63° C (max & min vary)
Weirdness above the surface…
Deimos – 15 km (9.3 miles)
Phobos – 26.8 km (16.7 miles)
Moons
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