Welcome to a new series, “Marsday Tuesday!”
Tuesday is named after Mars (the Latin name is dies Martis “day of Mars”), so each week on Tuesday, we’ll be sharing some important features, interesting research developments, and factoids on our friendly solar system neighbor, Mars!
Let’s start off with a basic Mars breakdown to see how similar/different it is compared to Earth:
- Mars has 686 days per Earth year
- It’s smaller than Earth (a radius of 3395 km compared to 6380 km for Earth)
- It’s gravity is 38% of that on Earth, and it receives 44% of the sunlight that Earth does
- Compared to Earth, Mars has a smaller bulk density (3.9 g/cm3 to 5.5 g/cm3), likely reflecting a rather small core
- Mars has a much, much thinner atmosphere, but it is CO2 dominated [from exhalations of long extinct volcanoes]
- Mars has two small moons, Deimos and Phobos, which are captured asteroids
- Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest volcano in the entire solar system
- There are evidence of well-established drainage systems, indicating a long-lived water cycle
- Age dating on Mars is difficult and can only be done through either radiometrically dating Martian meteorites or performing crater-density counts
Be sure to keep up with all of “Marsday Tuesday” HERE
Emily Zawacki, Ph.D. 