Red Planet Day is celebrated on November 28 to learn more about the Red Planet – Mars. The planet is called so because it seems red in color. Red Planet Day praises our celestial neighbor, the fourth planet in the solar system, and to mark the launch of the first spacecraft- Mariner 4.
Mars is an exceptionally bright planet, and, when it’s in range, you can usually observe it without a telescope. Obviously, if you have a telescope—or binoculars—you will improve your look. Luckily, in November the skies are generally clear, and Mars can in some cases be found in the early morning.
It is the first of the ‘superior’ planets, being further from the Sun than the Earth. Like Earth, Venus, and Mercury, Mars is a rough planet, yet is moderately little, being among Mercury and Venus in size.
Red Planet Day is a holiday to celebrate our neighbor in the solar system, Mars warmly called the red planet. The holiday is celebrated on the date of the launch of the Spacecraft Mariner 4 on November 28, 1964. The rocket came nearer to Mars than any had ever preceded it and gave us our first close up photos of the planet. Increasingly more data about Mars is being found by researchers continually from that point onward.
Red Planet Day is an extraordinary day to teach yourself about what we right now know and what we are doing to find out additional. On the off chance that you have a telescope another way to celebrate this holiday is to find Mars in the sky and see it directly. November is frequently an extraordinary chance to see it in many locations.
On Red Planet Day, take a few minutes to look upwards into the sky, and look at our neighbor. Ideally, you will have a cloudless night sky for viewing. You can likewise perceive this day by reading up about Mars and viewing pictures of it.
25 Fun Facts about Mars
- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is the second smallest planet in the solar system. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars is additionally frequently portrayed as the “Red Planet” because of its reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere made fundamentally out of carbon dioxide.
- Mars is the second smallest planet in the solar system after Mercury. With a diameter (distance through the center) of 6,791 kilometers, it’s generally half the size of Earth.
- The red color of Mars comes from the high level of iron oxide in its regolith (surface material). Notwithstanding, why there is so much oxidized iron on a planet with virtually no oxygen in the environment is as yet a secret.
- The antiquated Greeks called the planet Ares, after their god of war; the Romans at that point did in like manner, associating the planet’s blood-red color with Mars, their own god of war. Strangely, other old cultures additionally focused on color – to China’s astronomers it was ‘the fire star’, while Egyptian ministers called on ‘Her Desher’, or ‘the red one’. The red color Mars is known for is because of the rock and dust covering its surface being rich in iron.
- The two moons of Mars, Phobos, and Deimos, were found by American astronomer Asaph Hall over the course of a week in 1877. Hall had nearly surrendered his search for a moon of Mars, however, his wife, Angelina, encouraged him on. He found Deimos the next night, and Phobos six days after that. He named the moons after the children of the Greek war god Ares — Phobos signifies “fear,” while Deimos signifies “rout.”
- In 1840, the German astronomer Johann Heinrich von Mädler created the very first map of Mars from his ten years of perception.
- Notwithstanding the thin Mars atmosphere, the planet is as yet fit for clouds and weather. Truth be told, with regards to wind, Mars has the greatest dust storms on the entirety of the planets in the Solar System.
- With a radius of 2,106 miles, Mars is the seventh biggest planet in our solar system and about half the diameter of Earth. Its surface gravity is 37.5% of Earth’s.
- In 1960, the Soviet Union was the first country to try a flyby of Mars with 1M (referred to in the West as Marsnik) however the mission was unsuccessful. The USA was the first country to reach Mars successfully when Mariner 4 made a flyby of the Red Planet in July 1965.
- Mars is noticeable in the night sky with the naked eye, so it’s difficult to state precisely when anyone originally observed it. There are reports of it being sighted by the old Egyptians two millennia BCE. Be that as it may, the first to spot it through a telescope was Galileo Galilei in 1610.
- Even though Mars has just 15% of the Earth’s volume and simply over 10% of the Earth’s mass, around 66% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Martian surface gravity is just 37% of the Earth’s (which means you could jump almost three times higher on Mars).
- Mars is much colder than Earth, in enormous part because of its greater distance from the sun. The average temperature is about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius), even though it can differ from minus 195 F (minus 125 C) close to the poles during the winter to as much as 70 F (20 C) in the early afternoon close to the equator.
- A day on Mars is 24 hours and 37 minutes – just somewhat more than a day on our own planet. A year on Mars, nonetheless, is twice as long, lasting 687 Earth days! This is because it takes much more than Earth to finish its orbit around the Sun.
- For years Mars has been known to have water as ice. The first indications of streaming water are dark stripes or stains on cavity walls and cliffs found in satellite pictures. Because of Mars’ atmosphere, this water would need to be salty to keep it from freezing or vaporizing.
- Mars is the only other planet other than Earth that has polar ice caps. The northern cap is known as the Planum Boreum, with Planum Australe in the south. Water ice has likewise been found under the Martian ice caps.
- Beneath the surface, Mars is comprised of a thick iron, nickel, and sulfur core, and this is encircled by a softer silicone and oxygen mantle. The planet’s 50km-thick crust comprises basically of iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium, and potassium.
- Mars has the biggest volcano in the solar system – Olympus Mons. It measures about 600 kilometers across and rises nearly 27 kilometers above the surrounding terrain. It is a shield volcano worked by the persistent activity of streaming lava more than millions that started around 3 billion years prior.
- Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is 21km high and 600km in diameter. Despite having formed more than billions of years, proof from volcanic lava flows is so recent numerous researchers trust it could at present be active.
- Mars has an extremely primitive form of plate tectonics, and the activity of two plates past one another started parting the surface some 3.5 billion years prior. That set up for the formation of the Valles Marineris.
- Mars has what is known as an eccentric orbit, which implies it’s not completely circular around the Sun. That implies the distance between the two is continually changing, however, at their nearest it is 206 million km, while its farthest is 249 million km. This averages out to around 229 million km.
- The USSR was the first nation to place a human-made object on the planet’s surface. The first attempt, Mars 2, crash-landed in November 1971, however, less than a week later Mars 3 landed and stayed operational for 14.5 seconds.
- At the closest point to the Sun, the Martian southern hemisphere inclines towards the Sun, causing a short, strongly hot summer, while the northern hemisphere perseveres through a concise, cold winter: at its farthest point from the Sun, the Martian northern hemisphere inclines towards the Sun, causing a long, mild summer, while the southern hemisphere endures a lengthy, cold winter.
- Mars has seasons however they last longer than on Earth since Mars takes more time to orbit the Sun. The seasons change long because of Mars’ elliptical, egg-shaped orbit around the Sun.
- Martians, otherwise called extraterrestrials from Mars, are a common character in sci-fi books and films. This makes Mars one of the most famous and discussed planets in the solar system.
- On November 28, 1964, the Mariner 4 spacecraft was launched. It proceeded toward Mars and was the first probe to return short proximity pictures of that planet. Because of this successful mission, November 28 is known as Red Planet Day.
