User:MLatham53/a3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] Mars Direct Links Test Page
[edit] Mars Geography
Physical characteristics
Mars has approximately half the radius of Earth and only one-tenth the mass, being less dense, but its surface area is only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land
Mountains By height · Echus Montes · Elysium Planitia
Regions |list4= Cydonia Mensae · Planum Boreum · Planum Australe · Cerberus Hemisphere · Vastitas Borealis · Iani Chaos · Quadrangles · Tharsis · Ultimi Scopuli · Eridania Lake · Olympia Undae
Volcanoes |list3= Alba Patera · Albor Tholus · Arsia Mons · Ascraeus Mons · Biblis Patera · Elysium Mons · Hecates Tholus · Olympus Mons · Pavonis Mons · Syrtis Major · Tharsis · Tharsis Montes
Craters |list5=Catenae · Hellas Planitia · Argyre Planitia · Schiaparelli · Gusev · Eberswalde · Eagle
Mars impact craters: the Hellas impact basin, a light albedo feature clearly visible from Earth.{{cite web | , Valles Marineris (Latin for Mariner Valleys, also known as Agathadaemon area of Valles Marineris to collapse. Another large canyon is Ma'adim Vallis (Ma'adim is Hebrew for Mars). discoverers, are collectively known as the "seven sisters" Planum Australe.
List of artificial objects on Mars List of chasmata on Mars List of craters on Mars List of valles on Mars
Orbit and rotation Mars’ Orbit and Rotation passed its perihelion in June 2007 and will come to aphelion in May 2008.
Caves |list6= Caves of Mars Project · Arsia Mons
[edit] Mars Geology
Martian meteorite basalt. Some evidence suggests that a portion of the Martian surface is more silica-rich than typical basalt, and may be similar to andesitic stones on Earth; however, these observations may also be explained by silica glass. Much of the surface is deeply covered by a fine iron(III) oxide dust that has the consistency of talcum powder. MARS paleomagnetism (with the help of the Mars Global Surveyor), MARS plate tectonics MARS dynamo MARS INTERIOR MARS iron sulfide core GEOLOGY MARS* Noachian epoch (named after Noachis Terra): Hesperian epoch , Amazonian epoch .
[edit] Mars Hydrology
Hydrology MARS permafrost Much larger quantities of water are thought to be trapped underneath Mars's thick cryosphere, only to be released when the crust is cracked through volcanic
[edit] Mars Atmosphere
Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago, so the solar wind interacts directly with the Martian ionosphere, keeping the atmosphere thinner than it would otherwise be by stripping away atoms from the outer layer. Both Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express have detected these ionised
Climate
[edit] Mars Biosphere Search
[edit] Mars Astronomy And Exploration
Dozens of spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been sent to Mars by the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe, and Japan to study the planet's surface, climate, and geology.
Current missions
Future missions The European Space Agency hopes to land humans on Mars between 2030 and 2035. On September 28, 2007, NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin stated that NASA aims to put a man on Mars by 2037: in 2057, "we should be celebrating 20 years of man on Mars
Exploration | list4= Colonization · Phobos program · Spirit observed features · Opportunity observed features · HiRISE · Manned mission to Mars · Mars landing · Mars rover · Landed probes · Terraforming
Astronomy From Mars
With the existence of various orbiters, landers, and rovers, it is now possible to study astronomy from the Martian skies. The Earth and the Moon are easily visible while Mars’ moon Phobos appears about one third the angular diameter of the full Moon as it appears from Earth. meteors and [[aurora (phenomenon)|auroras There are also transits of Mercury and transits of Venus, and the moon Deimos is of sufficiently small angular diameter that its partial "eclipses" of the Sun are best considered transits (see Transit of Deimos from Mars).
Viewing apparent magnitude of Mars varies from +1.8 at conjunction to as high as -2.9 at perihelic opposition. When farthest away from the Earth, it is more than seven times as far from the latter as when it is closest. When least favourably positioned, it can be lost in the Sun's glare for months at a time. At its most favourable times—which occur twice every 32 years, alternately at 15 and 17-year intervals, and always between late July and late September—Mars shows a wealth of surface detail to a [[telescope The point of Mars’ closest approach to the Earth is known as opposition. The length of time between successive oppositions, or the Synodic period, is 780 days. Because of the eccentricities of the orbits, the times of opposition and minimum distance can differ by up to 8.5 days. The minimum distance varies between about 55 and 100 million km due to the planets' elliptical orbits. As Mars approaches opposition it begins a period of retrograde motion, which means it will appear to move backwards in a looping motion with respect to the background stars.
2003 closest approach On August 27, 2003, at 9:51:13 UT, Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years: 55,758,006 km. This occurred when Mars was one day from opposition and about three days from its perihelion, making Mars particularly easy to see from Earth. The last time it came so close is estimated to have been on September 12, 57,617 BC, the next time being in 2287. However, this record approach was only very slightly closer than other recent close approaches. For instance, the minimum distance on August 22, 1924 was 0.37284 AU, compared with 0.37271 AU on August 27, 2003, and the minimum distance on August 24, 2208 will be 0.37278 AU
2007-2008 Retrograde motion began on November 16, 2007 and lasted through January 31, 2008 with Mars appearing to move backwards through the sky from the constellation Gemini into Taurus.
, when it is closest to Earth (0.59 AU distance, 15.9" visual diameter), 6 days before opposition on December 24.|} Historical observations perihelion, making it even closer to Earth. Aristotlewas among the first known writers to describe observations of Mars, noting that, as it passed behind the moon, it was farther away than was originally believed. The only occultationof Mars by Venus observed was that of October 3, 1590, In 1609, Mars was viewed by Galileo, who was first to see it via telescope.
By the 19th century, the resolution of telescopes reached a level sufficient for surface features to be identified. In September 1877, a perihelic opposition of Mars occurred on September 5. In that year, Italianastronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, then in Milan, used a 22 cm telescope to help produce the first detailed map of Mars. These maps notably contained features he called canali, which were later shown to be an optical illusion. These canaliwere supposedly long straight lines on the surface of Mars to which he gave names of famous rivers on Earth. His term was popularly mistranslated as canals
Percival Lowellfounded an observatorylike Perrotin and Thollon in Nice, using one of the largest telescopes of that time. as seen near the 1999 opposition. (North top)]]
Even in the 1960s articles were published on Martian biology, putting aside explanations other than life for the seasonal changes on Mars. Detailed scenarios for the metabolism and chemical cycles for a functional ecosystem have been published. It was not until spacecraft visited the planet during NASA's Mariner missions in the 1960s that these myths were dispelled. The results of the Viking life-detection experiments started an intermission in which the hypothesis of a hostile, dead planet was generally accepted. Some maps of Mars were made using the data from these missions, but it was not until the Mars Global Surveyor mission, launched in 1996 and operated until late 2006, that complete, extremely detailed maps were obtained. These maps are now available online.
[edit] Mars Colonization
Colonization of Mars Terraforming of Mars Darian calendar – system of time-keeping
[edit] Mars Natural Satellites
Both satellites were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall, and are named after the characters [[Phobos (mythology)|Phobos]] (panic/fear) and Deimos (terror/dread) who, in Greek mythology, accompanied their father Ares, god of war, into battle. Ares was known as Mars to the
[edit] Mars in culture
Also influential were Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, in which human explorers accidentally destroy a Martian civilization, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series and a number of Robert A. Heinlein stories before the mid-sixties. Author Jonathan Swift made reference to the moons of Mars, about 150 years before their actual discovery by Asaph Hall, detailing reasonably accurate descriptions of their orbits, in the 19th chapter of his novel Gulliver's Travels After the Mariner and Viking spacecraft had returned pictures of Mars as it really is, an apparently lifeless and canal-less world, these ideas about Mars had to be abandoned and a vogue for accurate, realist depictions of human colonies on Mars developed, the best known of which may be Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. However, pseudo-scientific speculations about the Face on Mars and other enigmatic landmarks spotted by space probes have meant that ancient civilizations continue to be a popular theme in science fiction, especially in film
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[[Category:Astronomy navbox templates|Mars Footer]] [[Category:Mars|~]]
Mars as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope Type: ELEMENTS", "Target Body: Mars" and "Center: Sun".</ref>
|
||||||||||
| Epoch J2000 | ||||||||||
| Aphelion | 249,209,300 km 1.665861 AU |
|||||||||
| Perihelion | 206,669,000 km 1.381497 AU |
|||||||||
| Semi-major axis | 227,939,100 km 1.523679 AU |
|||||||||
| Eccentricity | 0.093315 |
|||||||||
| Orbital period | 686.971 day 1.8808 Julian years |
|||||||||
| Synodic period | 779.96 day 2.135 Julian years |
|||||||||
| Average orbital speed | 24.077 km/s | |||||||||
| Inclination | 1.850° 5.65° to Sun's Equator |
|||||||||
| Longitude of ascending node | 49.562° | |||||||||
| Argument of perihelion | 286.537° | |||||||||
| Satellites | 2 | |||||||||
|
Physical characteristics
|
||||||||||
| Equatorial radius | 3,396.2 ± 0.1 km[1][2] 0.533 Earths |
|||||||||
| Polar radius | 3,376.2 ± 0.1 km[1][2] 0.531 Earths |
|||||||||
| Flattening | 0.00589 ± 0.00015 | |||||||||
| Surface area | 144,798,500 km² 0.284 Earths |
|||||||||
| Volume | 1.6318×1011 km³ 0.151 Earths |
|||||||||
| Mass | 6.4185×1023 kg 0.107 Earths |
|||||||||
| Mean density | 3.934 g/cm³ | |||||||||
| Equatorial surface gravity | 3.69 m/s² 0.376 g |
|||||||||
| Escape velocity | 5.027 km/s | |||||||||
| Sidereal rotation period |
1.025957 day 24.62296 h |
|||||||||
| Equatorial rotation velocity | 868.22 km/h | |||||||||
| Axial tilt | 25.19° | |||||||||
| North pole right ascension | 21 h 10 min 44 s 317.68143° |
|||||||||
| North pole declination | 52.88650° | |||||||||
| Albedo | 0.15 | |||||||||
| Surface temp. Kelvin Celsius |
|
|||||||||
| Apparent magnitude | +1.8 to -2.91[3] | |||||||||
| Angular diameter | 3.5" — 25.1"[3] | |||||||||
| Adjectives | Martian | |||||||||
|
Atmosphere
|
||||||||||
| Surface pressure | 0.7–0.9 kPa | |||||||||
| Composition | 95.72% Carbon dioxide 2.7% Nitrogen |
|||||||||
- Note: This article contains special characters.
Mars (pronounced /ˈmɑ(ɹ)z/) is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance as seen from Earth.
Olympus Mons, Valles Marineris, Mars’ rotational period season Mariner 4 in 1965, it striations were interpreted by some observers as irrigation channels for liquid water. These straight line features were later proven not to exist and were instead explained as optical illusion life.
Mars is currently host to three functional orbiting spacecraft: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is more than any planet in the Solar System except Earth. The surface is also home to the two Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity).
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped. These may be captured asteroids, similar to 5261 Eureka, a Martian Trojan asteroid.
[edit] See also
[edit] References and notes
- ^ a b Seidelmann, P. Kenneth; Archinal, B. A.; A’hearn, M. F.; et.al. (2007). "Report of the IAU/IAGWorking Group on cartographic coordinates and rotational elements: 2006". Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy 90: 155–180. doi:.
- ^ a b Best fit ellipsoid
- ^ a b David R. Williams (September 1, 2004). Mars Fact Sheet. National Space Science Data Center. NASA. Retrieved on 2006-06-24.
- ^ Mars: Facts & Figures. NASA. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
[edit] External links
| Find more about Mars on Wikipedia's sister projects: | |
|---|---|
 |
Dictionary definitions |
 |
Textbooks |
 |
Quotations |
 |
Source texts |
 |
Images and media |
 |
News stories |
 |
Learning resources |
- 3D maps of Mars in NASA World Wind
- Google Mars – Interactive image of Mars
- Flight Into Mariner Valley – NASA/JPL/Arizona State University 3D flythrough of Valles Marineris
- Marsgeo.com – Mars Rover photos, videos & surface geology
- Guide to Mars – information about Mars and how to observe it.
- Nine Planets Mars page
- On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet 1958–1978 from the NASA History Office.
- Martian Law – a CATO white paper
- Computer Simulation of a flyby through Mariner Valley
- Mars Unearthed – Comparisons of terrains between Earth and Mars
- Ralph Aeschliman's Online Atlas of Mars
- Geody Mars – World's search engine that supports NASA World Wind, Celestia, and other applications.
- Be on Mars – Anaglyphs from the Mars Rovers (3D)
- NASA/JPL OnMars WMS Server for Mars Data – Work as Google Earth client overlays
- Exploring Mars: Image Center
- BBC News update on Mars Express' findings of polar water ice and water-eroded features on the surface
- BBC News Mars pictures reveal frozen sea
- 04/02/07: ESA Prepares for a Human Mission to Mars
- Mars' apparent relative size at opposition as seen by HST
|
|||||||||||||||||
[[Category:Astronomy navbox templates|Mars Footer]] [[Category:Mars|~]]
