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    Mars Research Body

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    Mars Research Body

    Uploaded by

    kenbernardobenolirao
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    3 views3 pages

    Mars Research Body

    Uploaded by

    kenbernardobenolirao

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Mars Research Body

    Even though there is no evidence of life on it, scientists still believe that this

    planet shows a great potential for sustaining life; even with its dry, rocky, and bitter

    cold structure ... not “in” the surface but “under” it. Let us all indulge ourselves and

    feed our minds with more knowledge about the Red Planet, Mars.

    Named after the Roman God of War, Mars exhibits a look of a bright red point

    of light that stands out by somehow connecting its reddish color to blood. But do you

    know that even though it seems like a single-colored planet of red, at its surface,

    humans can see colors such as brown, gold, and tan. The reason behind this is that

    Mars produces much oxidation, can be called as rusting, coming from the iron in the

    rocks, regolith (Martian “soil”), and dust of Mars. This dust gets kicked up into the

    atmosphere and from a distance makes the planet appear mostly red. Even though

    Scientists don't expect to find living things currently thriving on Mars, there are still

    signs which makes life possible for Mars to support life like the fact that scientists

    recently found water ice just under the surface (Little House of Science, 2018). It is

    the fourth planet from the Sun and is one of the Earth’s closest planetary neighbors

    apart from Venus. Due its strikingly noticeable bright red point of light, Mars is one

    of the easiest planets to spot in the night sky.

    According to European Space Agency (ESA), Mars' atmosphere is composed

    of 95.32% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, 1.6% argon and 0.13% oxygen, which

    makes it over a hundred times less than the Earth’s atmosphere. These facts strongly

    possess the truth that humans cannot breathe Matian air (Dobrijevic, 2022).

    Furthermore, when humans visit Mars and look at its sky, it would look like hazy and

    red because of suspended dust instead of the familiar blue tint humans see on Earth.

    Mars' sparse atmosphere doesn't offer much protection from impacts by such objects
    as meteorites, asteroids, and comets. It has also a weak gravity ranging up to 37% less

    than of Earth which would definitely make us float easily and could make us jump 3x

    higher than on Earth with ease.

    Additionally, Mars is home to the largest volcano in the solar system,

    Olympus Mons. It's three times taller than Earth's Mt. Everest with a base the size of

    the state of New Mexico. Hikers who reached the tip of Mt. Everest would probably

    be mind-blown due to this fact. When it comes to Mars’ structure, it has a has a dense

    core at its center between 930 and 1,300 miles (1,500 to 2,100 kilometers) in radius.

    According to NASA Solar System Exploration (2023), it has a rocky mantle that is

    between 770 and 1,170 miles (1,240 and 1,880 kilometers) thick that surrounds the

    core, and on top of it is a crust composed of iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium,

    and potassium. The depth of this crust ranges from 6 to 30 miles (10 to 50

    kilometers). Even though Mars is only about half the diameter of the Earth, it’s dry

    land has nearly the same area of the latter due to the unavailability of bodies of water

    on it. Like the Earth, Mars also have volcanoes, impact craters, crustal movement, and

    atmospheric conditions such as dust storms which have altered its landscape over

    many years, creating some of the solar system's most interesting topographical

    features.

    Another fascinating fact about Mars is the Valles Marineris known as the

    largest canyon in the solar system. It is 4 miles deep and stretches thousands of miles

    long. Just like the Earth, it also has north and south poles wherein polar ice caps are

    covered in a layer of frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice). According to Little House of

    Science (2018), in order to understand Mars more and know if life forms can be

    detected or possible in its surface, we Mars Rovers (which are like robots) on

    missions to explore Mars and collect samples and record scientific data for scientists
    on Earth to study. Some of these Rovers include Viking 1, Viking 2, Mars 2, Mars 3,

    Spirit, Phoenix, Pathfinder, Curiosity, and Opportunity. A total of 9 rovers have been

    launched to Mars. Only 7 of them landed successfully and 3 are currently operational

    as of February this year (Stone, 2023).

    References:

    NASA Solar System Exploration (September 2023). MARS.


    https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/in-depth/#:~:text=Mars%20has%20a
    %20dense%20core,iron%2C%20nickel%2C%20and%20sulfur.

    Dobrijevic, Daisy (February 2022). Mars’ atmosphere: Facts about composition and
    climate. https://www.space.com/16903-mars-atmosphere-climate-weather.html

    Little House of Science (January 2018).


    https://www.littlehouseofscience.com/20_fascinating__fun_science_facts_planet_mar
    s

    Stone, Elena (February 2023). List of Mars Rovers. https://littleastronomy.com/list-


    of-mars-rovers/#:~:text=A%20total%20of%208%20rovers,and%203%20are
    %20currently%20operational

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