Mars
- 1. MARS
- 2. NAME OF THE PLANET The name comes from the Roman god of war – MARS. It is due to its metallic – red colour (even though the actual color of the surface of Mars is caramel) - these colors were associated with a war by the ancient people.
- 3. HISTORY OF MARS After the formation of the planets, there was The Late Heavy Bombardment. 60% of the Martian surface are the heights created during that period. Vast majority of the remaining area of Mars was probably created by the lava outflow.
- 4. INFORMATION ABOUT GEOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSICAL MARS Mars is the inner planet. It has a surface with craters just like the surface of the Moon. Rotation around its axis is slightly longer than the Earth’s (it’s 24 h 37 min 22s). Mars has the highest mountain in the Solar System - Olympus Mons and the largest canyon - Valles Marineris! Mars is geologically and tectonically inactive. The surface temperature of Mars is about -87 ° C (winter) and -5 ° C (summer). Mars has two small moons of irregular shape which were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall. MARS PLANET TEXTURE
- 5. WATER ON MARS The lava flowed in the valley of the Athabasca about 200 million years ago, and water flowed in the Cerberus Fossae channel around 20 million years ago. Due to the low atmospheric pressure liquid water cannot currently exist on the surface of Mars with the exception of the lowest-lying areas near the equator where it may appear only for a short period of time! Large amounts of ice are trapped in the Mars’ cryosphere – the polar ice caps appear to be largely composed of ice. The data indicate that large quantities of water ice exist at both poles and at mid-latitudes. On 31 July 2008 Phoenix lander directly sampled ice from the Martian regolith!
- 6. LIFE AND EXPEDITIONS TO MARS Mars was already observed by the ancient Egyptian astronomers in the night sky, and before 1534 BC a retrograde motion was already known. Babylonian astronomers during the rule of New – Babylonian Empire keep regular records of the position of the planets and conducted systematic observations of their behavior. Many space probes (orbiters, landers and rovers) were sent in the direction of Mars, among others by the United States and Japan to explore the surface of the planet, its climate and geological structure. Current cost of sending one kilogram of load to Mars amounts to $ 310,000. Approximately 2/3 of the Mars mission has not been completed successfully (the probe underwent a failure in the various stages of flight). For 2016 it is planned to start the InSight mission which is to conduct a geophysical research of the planet.
- 7. The idea that Mars is inhabited by intelligent Martians was particularly popular in the late nineteenth century. In 1901, in an article for The New York Times, the director of the Harvard College Observatory said that he received a telegram from Lowell Observatory in Arizona which seemed to confirm that Mars tried to communicate with the Earth: " At the beginning of December 1900 we received the Lowell Observatory in Arizona telegram that the observed light beam from the direction of Mars "
- 8. MARS IN OUR CULTURE In different cultures, Mars represents masculinity and youth. Currently, a number of films, books and computer games are created about Mars, about the life and functioning on this extraordinary planet.
- 9. INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT MARS In ancient Greece it was believed that the Earth is the center of the universe, and Mars is one of the five stars that moves around it. The famous Galileo was the first person who observed Mars through a telescope - it was in 1609. The gravity on Mars is only 38% of the Earth’s gravity which means that terrestrial kilogram "weighs" 380 grams there. Mars is a giant, the largest planet in the solar system, a natural labyrinth known as Noctis Labyrinthus (which means "Labyrinth of Night"). This is a system of deep intersecting valleys.
- 10. THANKS FOR WATCHING! by Group 3 Zuzanna Pruchniak Alexandros Chrisanthou Anna Hermanowska Andreas Chrisanthou Karolina Kuryj