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🪐 Space and stars 🪐 The Sun and planets

Mars

Mars

📖 In short

A little red dot shines in the sky… it's Mars, “the red planet”! Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and Earth's neighbor. Scientists and children everywhere dream that people will visit it one day.

🤩 Did you know?

  • A day on Mars is a little longer than ours: about 24 hours and 37 minutes.
  • A year on Mars lasts 687 Earth days, so your birthday would come about once every two years!
  • If you stood on Mars, you'd weigh about a third of what you weigh on Earth.
  • Mars's volcano Olympus Mons is more than twice as high as Mount Everest!

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Why is it red?

Mars's soil and rocks are full of iron that has rusted, like an old nail left out in the rain. This rust gives the planet its reddish-orange color.

🔍 Giant mountains and valleys

Mars has the highest known mountain in the solar system, the huge volcano Olympus Mons, and also a vast valley much longer and deeper than any on Earth.

💡 Two little moons

Mars has two small potato-shaped moons called Phobos and Deimos.

🎯 Robot explorers

Scientists have sent robotic rovers to Mars that drive over its surface, take pictures, examine rocks and look for signs of ancient water.

📸 More pictures

Mars
Mars
Mars

🧩 Test yourself

1 Why is Mars called “the red planet”?

2 How many moons does Mars have?

3 A year on Mars lasts ?? Earth days, so your birthday would come about once every two years!

4 Which picture shows “Mars”?

🪐 Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons