Mars

The Inner Planets Part 3
Mars (5th
grade) March 2017

The inner planets include
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and
Mars.
Mars’s axis tilt is similar to Earth’s.

Mars is the 4th planet from the
sun...

...and the last of the terrestrial
planets.

Photo of Mars’s surface taken by Pathfinder rover
in 1997.

Mars has less mass than Earth, so it
has less gravity, too. If you weigh 100
lbs. on Earth, you would only weigh
about 38 lbs. on Mars.

https://youtu.be/z8aBZZnv6y8
Watch this 2:41 video on the planets’
orbits around the sun. Keep in mind that
the scale is not accurate. The real scale is
so large, it would be difficult to see each
planet.
Pay attention to Earth and Mars. Which
orbits the Sun the fastest?

Question: Which orbits the Sun
faster...Earth or Mars?

It takes Mars about 2 Earth
years to orbit the Sun.

A Martian day is close to an
Earth day. It is 24 hours 39
minutes long.
A sunset on Mars.

How Did Mars Get Its
Name?
It’s red, as though from
blood shed in battle. So,
the Romans named it for
their god of war, Mars.
The Greeks called him
“Ares”.
It was known to the
Babylonians 3,600 years
ago as the “Star that
Wandered”.
Mars

Mars’s nickname is “The Red
Planet”.

Mars is red because the dust on Mars
is composed mostly of rusted iron.
Oxygen chemically reacts with iron, creating rust.

The Martian sky is reddish in color
because of its dusty atmosphere...

Light is made of a spectrum of colored
wavelengths. You can see this spectrum
when you look at a rainbow...

The rust dust that’s in the Martian atmosphere
absorbs the blue light and scatters the red
light, giving the sky a rusty color.

Interestingly, while sunsets on Earth are red,
sunsets on Mars are blue.
Earth sunset Mars sunset

What is the atmosphere on Mars
like?

Mars has a thin atmosphere. It is only
1% as thick as Earth’s.
Mars Earth

Mars’s atmosphere is
composed mostly of carbon
dioxide.

There is no rain on Mars because the low
temperatures and pressures mean water can only
exist as vapor or ice, although it may have have
rained in the geologic past say scientists.
This photo shows
water ice that
formed in a
trench where
a rover had scooped
out a soil sample.

Mars has a lot of dust storms. Watch the
following 3:24 min. video about Martian dust
storms.
https://youtu.be/SA1_bzS8-AI

Are there any clouds on Mars
now?

Clouds on Mars are sometimes localized and can
sometimes cover entire regions, but have not yet
been observed to cover the entire planet. ... The
clouds consist of water ice condensed on reddish
dust particles suspended in the atmosphere.

NASA researchers have determined that Mars’s once
rich atmosphere was stripped away by solar winds in
the early days of the Solar System, causing the
planet to dry out.

This shows how Earth’s magnetic field protects our
own planet from solar wind. Without a magnetic
field, solar wind would cause our atmosphere’s gas
atoms to be blasted into space.

The liquid iron in our planet’s outer core is
constantly flowing and moving. This movement
generates an electric current, creating our planet’s
magnetic fields.
outer core

Mars lost its powerful magnetic field when it cooled
too quickly, stopping it from having molten iron in
its core. Now, the magnetic field Mars has left is
simple and small.

NASA researchers believe that around 4.3 billion
years ago, Mars had incredibly deep oceans that
held more water than the Arctic Ocean here on
Earth.
Mars’s ocean
may have looked
like this.

Mars is a cold planet. Because its atmosphere
is so thin, it doesn’t have a "thermal blanket” to
retain any heat energy.

In winter, near the poles temperatures can get
down to minus 195 degrees F. Notice Mars’s
polar ice caps.

Mercury and Venus don’t have
any moons. Does Mars?

They were most likely meteors that were
captured by Mars’s gravity.

This illustrates Phobos’s and Deimos’s
orbits around Mars.

The moons were discovered by Asaph Hall in
1877. He named them after the mythological sons
of Mars.

Phobos means “fear” or “panic”. Phobos
has a 6 mile wide crater. Phobos whips
around Mars 3 times a day.

Phobos is gradually spiraling inward, drawing about 1.8 m
closer to the planet each century. Within 50 million years, it
will either crash into Mars or break up and form a ring
around the planet.

Deimos means flight (as in running away after an
overwhelming defeat). Deimos orbits Mars once
every 30 Earth hours.

Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system. It is called “Olympus Mons”.

The tallest mountains on Mars, Earth, and Venus
compared.
Mars
Venus
Earth

Mars also has the largest canyon in the Solar
System. The canyon was named “Valles
Marineris”. It is up to 4 miles deep and is 2,500
miles long! It is 125 miles wide at its widest
point.

This shows the Mars canyon compared to the size of the
United States. Watch the 3:44 min. video on this canyon.
https://youtu.be/crsqzZNUXsY

How many craters does Mars
have?

Mars has more than 635,000 impact craters that
are each at least a ½ mile wide. In this image,
each red dot represents one such crater.

There have been many missions to Mars
and we Earthlings will continue to explore
Mars now and in the future.
Click on the link below to view the missions to Mars. The link may
need to be cut and pasted into the browser.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_Mars

Watch how the rover called
“Spirit” landed on Mars on
January 4, 2004.
https://youtu.be/6t3IARmIdOI

In August of 2012, the rover
“Curiosity” landed on Mars in a
slightly different way. Watch
this video to see how.
https://youtu.be/gwinFP8_qIM

Now watch the real video footage, taken by
the probe that carried Curiosity to Mars.
https://youtu.be/gZX5GRPnd4U

https://youtu.be/nQ365jzwk5w
Watch this 3:11 min. video on the rover
called “Curiosity”.

Curiosity took this photograph of a
meteorite.

Curiosity looks back at its tread marks.

Okay, it’s time to quiz yourself:
How many moons does Mars
have?

What are the names of these
moons?

Answer:
It has a layer of rusted iron dust.

Question:
What are 2 things on Mars that
are the largest in the solar
system?

Answer:
Mars has the largest volcano
(Olympus Mons) and the largest
canyon (Valles Marineris).

Question:
What is Mars’s location in the
solar system?

Answer:
It is the 4th
planet from the Sun.

Question:
What is Mars’s atmosphere like,
and what is it made of?

Answer:
It has a thin atmosphere of
carbon dioxide.

Question:
What is the temperature like on
Mars?

Answer:
Mars is much colder than Earth.

Question:
What is the gravity like on
Mars?

Answer:
Mars has less mass than Earth,
so its gravity is less, too. If you
weigh 100 lbs. on Earth, you’d
only weigh about 38 lbs. on
Mars.

Question:
About how long is a year on
Mars?

Answer:
A Mars year is about 2 Earth
years.

Question:
How long is a Mars day?

Answer:
A Mars day is 24 Earth hours
and 39 minutes.

The End
This PowerPoint was created by Mrs. Burch

Mars

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