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Mars
The Red Planet
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Mars,
The Red Planet and scene of all those 1950's science fiction movies that I
devoured as a youth. Seeing it for the first time through a
telescope brought science fiction to life for me as I was transported to the
surface of the red menace.
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 Mars, also known as the red planet is a very interesting planet
mainly because of its rapid motion through the sky and because of it's reddish
color. Over a period of months, its path among the stars seems to reverse itself
in a giant loop. Copernicus referred to this loop as retrograde motion. This happens when Earth passes Mars as both planets orbit
the Sun. Mars has polar caps that are believed to contain water ice. Our recent
visit to the red planet revealed a great amount of information that leads us to
believe that Mars once had some life forms on the surface. Mars has 2 "moons"
named Phobos and Deimos. These "moons", however, are actually only small orbiting chunks of rock which
are comparable to some of the smaller asteroids. |
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"Image
courtesy Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Copyright (c) California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. All rights
reserved."
[click on thumbnail for larger image]
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Martian Facts
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Distance from Earth
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1.52 AU |
Apparent Magnitude
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+1.8 to -2.6 |
Mass
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0.11 x Earth's mass
6.42 x 1023 kg |
Martian Day
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24.6 hours |
Radius
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0.53 x Earth's radius
6787 km diameter |
Martian Year
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686.98 Earth days |
Apparent Size
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4-25 arcsecs |
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The Martian Moons
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Phobos
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Deimos
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"Images
courtesy Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Copyright (c) California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. All rights
reserved."
[click on thumbnail for larger image]
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The Pages of The Gray Wizard
