Planet Marsexplained

The red planet Marsnamed for the Roman god of warhas long been an omen in the night sky. And in its own waythe planet’s rusty red surface tells a story of destruction. Billions of years agothe fourth planet from the sun could have been mistaken for Earth’s smaller twinwith liquid water on its surface—and maybe even life.

(Photos of Mars)

Nowthe world is a coldbarren desert with few signs of liquid water. But after decades of study using orbiterslandersand roversscientists have revealed Mars as a dynamicwindblown landscape that could—just maybe—harbor microbial life beneath its rusty surface even today.

Longer year and shifting seasons

With a radius of 2,106 milesMars is the seventh largest planet in our solar system and about half the diameter of Earth. Its surface gravity is 37.5 percent of Earth’s.

(Life on Mars Found by NASA's Viking Mission?)

Mars rotates on its axis every 24.6 Earth hoursdefining the length of a Martian daywhich is called a sol (short for “solar day”). Mars’s axis of rotation is tilted 25.2 degrees relative to the plane of the planet’s orbit around the sunwhich helps give Mars seasons similar to those on Earth. Whichever hemisphere is tilted closer to the sun experiences spring and summerwhile the hemisphere tilted away gets fall and winter. At two specific moments each year—called the equinoxes—both hemispheres receive equal illumination.

But for several reasonsseasons on Mars are different from those on Earth. For oneMars is on average about 50 percent farther from the sun than Earth iswith an average orbital distance of 142 million miles. This means that it takes Mars longer to complete a single orbitstretching out its year and the lengths of its seasons. On Marsa year lasts 669.6 solsor 687 Earth daysand an individual season can last up to 194 solsor just over 199 Earth days.

The angle of Mars’s axis of rotation also changes much more often than Earth'swhich has led to swings in the Martian climate on timescales of thousands to millions of years. In additionMars’s orbit is less circular than Earth’swhich means that its orbital velocity varies more over the course of a Martian year. This annual variation affects the timing of the red planet’s solstices and equinoxes. On Marsthe northern hemisphere’s spring and summer are longer than the fall and winter.

There’s another complicating factor: Mars has a far thinner atmosphere than Earthwhich dramatically lessens how much heat the planet can trap near its surface. Surface temperatures on Mars can reach as high as 70 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as -225 degrees Fahrenheitbut on averageits surface is -81 degrees Fahrenheita full 138 degrees colder than Earth’s average temperature.

Windy and wateryonce

The primary driver of modern Martian geology is its atmospherewhich is mostly made of carbon dioxidenitrogenand argon. By Earth standardsthe air is preposterously thin; air pressure atop Mount Everest is about 50 times higher than it is at the Martian surface. Despite the thin airMartian breezes can gust up to 60 miles an hourkicking up dust that fuels huge dust storms and massive fields of alien sand dunes.

Once upon a timethoughwind and water flowed across the red planet. Robotic rovers have found clear evidence that billions of years agolakes and rivers of liquid water coursed across the red planet’s surface. This means that at some point in the distant pastMars’s atmosphere was sufficiently dense and retained enough heat for water to remain liquid on the red planet’s surface. Not so today: Though water ice abounds under the Martian surface and in its polar ice capsthere are no large bodies of liquid water on the surface there today.

Mars also lacks an active plate tectonic systemthe geologic engine that drives our active Earthand is also missing a planetary magnetic field. The absence of this protective barrier makes it easier for the sun’s high-energy particles to strip away the red planet’s atmospherewhich may help explain why Mars’s atmosphere is now so thin. But in the ancient past—up until about 4.12 to 4.14 billion years ago—Mars seems to have had an inner dynamo powering a planet-wide magnetic field. What shut down the Martian dynamo? Scientists are still trying to figure out.

High highs and low lows

Like Earth and VenusMars has mountainsvalleysand volcanoesbut the red planet’s are by far the biggest and most dramatic. Olympus Monsthe solar system’s largest volcanotowers some 16 miles above the Martian surfacemaking it three times taller than Everest. But the base of Olympus Mons is so wide—some 374 miles across—that the volcano’s average slope is only slightly steeper than a wheelchair ramp. The peak is so massiveit curves with the surface of Mars. If you stood at the outer edge of Olympus Monsits summit would lie beyond the horizon.

Mars has not only the highest highsbut also some of the solar system’s lowest lows. Southeast of Olympus Mons lies Valles Marineristhe red planet’s iconic canyon system. The gorges span about 2,500 miles and cut up to 4.3 miles into the red planet’s surface. The network of chasms is four times deeper—and five times longer—than Earth’s Grand Canyonand at its widestit’s a staggering 200 miles across. The valleys get their name from Mariner 9which became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet when it arrived at Mars in 1971.

A tale of two hemispheres

About 4.5 billion years agoMars coalesced from the gaseousdusty disk that surrounded our young sun. Over timethe red planet’s innards differentiated into a corea mantleand an outer crust that’s an average of 40 miles thick.

Its core is likely made of iron and nickellike Earth’sbut probably contains more sulfur than ours. The best available estimates suggest that the core is about 2,120 miles acrossgive or take 370 miles—but we don’t know the specifics. NASA’s InSight lander aims to unravel the mysteries of Mars’s interior by tracking how seismic waves move through the red planet.

Mars’s northern and southern hemispheres are wildly different from one anotherto a degree unlike any other planet in the solar system. The planet’s northern hemisphere consists mostly of low-lying plainsand the crust there can be just 19 miles thick. The highlands of the southern hemispherehoweverare studded with many extinct volcanoesand the crust there can get up to 62 miles thick.

What happened? It’s possible that patterns of internal magma flow caused the differencebut some scientists think it's the result of Mars suffering one or several major impacts. One recent model suggests Mars got its two faces because an object the size of Earth’s moon slammed into Mars near its south pole.

Both hemispheres do have one thing in common: They’re covered in the planet’s trademark dustwhich gets its many shades of orangeredand brown from iron rust.

Cosmic companions

At some point in the distant pastthe red planet gained its two small and irregularly shaped moonsPhobos and Deimos. The two lumpy worldsdiscovered in 1877are named for the sons and chariot drivers of the god Mars in Roman mythology. How the moons formed remains unsolved. One possibility is that they formed in the asteroid belt and were captured by Mars’s gravity. But recent models instead suggest that they could have formed from the debris flung up from Mars after a huge impact long ago.

Deimosthe smaller of the two moonsorbits Mars every 30 hours and is less than 10 miles across. Its larger sibling Phobos bears many scarsincluding craters and deep grooves running across its surface. Scientists have long debated what caused the grooves on Phobos. Are they tracks left behind by boulders rolling across the surface after an ancient impactor signs that Mars’s gravity is pulling the moon apart?

Either waythe moon’s future will be considerably less groovy. Each centuryPhobos gets about six feet closer to Mars; in 50 million years or sothe moon is projected either to crash into the red planet’s surface or break into smithereens.

Missions to Mars

Since the 1960shumans have robotically explored Mars more than any other planet beyond Earth. Currentlyeight missions from the U.S.European UnionRussiaand India are actively orbiting Mars or roving across its surface. But getting safely to the red planet is no small feat. Of the 45 Mars missions launched since 196026 have had some component fail to leave Earthfall silent en routemiss orbit around Marsburn up in the atmospherecrash on the surfaceor die prematurely.

More missions are on the horizonincluding some designed to help search for Martian life. NASA is building its Mars 2020 rover to cache promising samples of Martian rock that a future mission would return to Earth. In 2020the European Space Agency and Roscosmos plan to launch a rover named for chemist Rosalind Franklinwhose work was crucial to deciphering the structure of DNA. The rover will drill into Martian soil to hunt for signs of past and present life. Other countries are joining the fraymaking space exploration more global in the process. In July 2020the United Arab Emirates is slated to launch its Hope orbiterwhich will study the Martian atmosphere.

Perhaps humans will one day join robots on the red planet. NASA has stated its goal to send humans back to the moon as a stepping-stone to Mars. Elon Muskfounder and CEO of SpaceXis building a massive vehicle called Starship in part to send humans to Mars. Will humans eventually build a scientific base on the Martian surfacelike those that dot Antarctica? How will human activity affect the red planet or our searches for life there?

Time will tell. But no matter whatMars will continue to occupy the human imaginationa glimmering red beacon in our skies and stories.