Everything we know about Mars 2021

 

there are a lot of things the average  person doesn't know about mars  what's the climate like could there be  life there  what uses could humanity have for mars  in the future  today on fact nominal we're going to  clue you in on all of these facts and  more  in everything we know about mars in 2021  first let's go over the basics mars is  the fourth planet from the sun and takes  its name from the roman god of war  its bright rust color comes from iron  rich minerals and its rigolette  the loose dust and rock that covers the  surface  it is home to large volcanoes and  mountains some of the largest in our  solar system in fact  the surface gravity on mars is only  about 38 of the surface gravity on earth  so if you weighed 100 pounds on earth  you'd only weigh 38 pounds on mars  so how's the weather on mars despite its  red appearance and in contrast to many  depictions in movies  mars is much colder than earth the  average temperature is about minus 80  degrees fahrenheit or minus 60 celsius  it can vary from -195 fahrenheit at the  poles during winter  to a lovely 70 degrees fahrenheit at the  equator around midday  the carbon dioxide rich atmosphere of  mars is also about 100 times less  dense than earth's on average  nevertheless the atmosphere is thick  enough to support weather  clouds and wind mars has significant  amounts of ice on its polar regions  being the only planet other than earth  in our solar system to have this  it has so much ice in fact that if the  ice on its south pole was  to melt the resulting water would be  sufficient to cover the planet's entire  surface  to a depth of 11 meters so humans better  be careful not to cause global warming  if we ever  live on mars in the future mars's  seasons are much more extreme than  earth's  this is due to the red planet's  elliptical oval-shaped orbit around the  sun  this elongated orbit causes a short very  hot summer  and a long cold winter to add to this  the tilt of the red planet's axis swings  wildly over time because it's not  stabilized by a large moon unlike earth  the elongated orbit of mars also causes  the length of a year on mars to be about  687 earth days  however the length of a day is almost  the same as earth  at 24 hours and 37 minutes  mars does however have a moon in fact it  has two  the moons of mars phobos and deimos were  discovered by american astronomer asov  hall in 1877  both phobos and deimos are made of  carbon rich rock mixed with ice  and are covered in dust and loose rocks  they are tiny compared to our moon and  are irregularly shaped due to the  lacking of gravity to pull themselves  into a  more circular form the origins of these  moons are uncertain  they may have previously been asteroids  pulled in by mars gravitational pull but  there are many other theories  unfortunately for phobos it is gradually  spiraling towards mars  drawing about six feet closer to the red  planet each  century within 50 million years  bobos will either smash into mars or  break up  and form a ring of debris around the  planet if you've ever seen a movie set  on mars  you may have seen the famous dust storms  depicted in it  these are a real phenomenon and mars has  the largest dust storms in the solar  system  dust storms are capable of blanketing  the entire planet and lasting for months  but why is this  well one theory is that airborne dust  particles absorb sunlight  warming the martian atmosphere these  warm pockets of air then flow  towards the colder regions generating  winds  strong winds lift more dust off the  ground heating the atmosphere  perpetuating a cycle of dust storms  not much is known about mars composition  but scientists have made guesses as to  what it might be made of mars likely has  a solid core composed of iron nickel  and sulfur the mantle of mars is  probably similar to earth's as well  the crust is probably made of basalt a  volcanic rock  which is also common in the crusts of  the earth and moon  mars has no global magnetic field there  are regions of its crust that can be at  least 10 times  more strongly magnetized than anything  measured on earth  this suggests there are remnants of an  action  global magnetic field  now let's turn our attention to the  question of whether life exists on mars  or if it ever existed to begin with  there was never any confirmation of life  existing on mars though many theories  have  been devised that suggest life exists in  small amounts on the red planet  for example a study by scientists in  2018  suggested that salty water below the  surface  could hold considerable amounts of  oxygen which could support microbial  life  although in 2018 a meteorite study found  that organic molecules the building  blocks of life could have formed on mars  through battery-like chemical reactions  another theory came from a martian  meteorite that in 1996 was said to  contain shapes reminiscent of small  fossils  despite the excitement after 20 years of  debate on the subject this theory was  dismissed  there's also been evidence found that  suggests water may have flowed on mars  a necessary building block for life what  do we know about how mars could be used  by humans  could it be our second home and how  would we go about living there  nasa chief scientist jim green has  stated that humans will absolutely be on  mars in the future  and that the first person to go is  likely living today  the plan is to send humans to the red  planet by 2040.  however there are some challenges humans  will face in making mars our new home  first of all landing on mars will be  difficult a roughly 10-ton vehicle with  precision landing capability  is required to make the journey and land  safely at present nasa has only been  capable of landing a one-ton  vehicle spacesuits would need to be worn  at all time  we'd have to get used to the dust storms  and we'd have to build an entire  infrastructure  just to make small habitats livable that  means farms and homes would need to be  built  and the resources needed to construct  them would need to have been transported  from earth  so it seems nasa and other space  agencies have their work cut out for  them for making mars the second home  planet for humans  what is your favorite fact that you  learned about mars from today's article  do you have any obscure or fun facts of  your own that you'd like to share  let us know in the comments if you  enjoyed this article  or learned something new today hit the  like button  subscribe and make sure to hit the bell  icon  so you never miss another amazing article