Mars Red Planet

We know Mars by many names- the red planet, the fourth planet from the sun, Earth's neighbor, Tiu. This planet was named after the Roman god of war because of its' red color. We have seen Mars in the sky and dreamed for centuries. Some people even theorized that there was intellligent life on Mars. Now, we know there is no life on Mars, but we continue thinking about and learning about Mars every day through the Curiosity rover and other devices.

Mars is a very old planet. It was made about 4.6 million years ago. It was made from the remnants of the creation of the sun, and was made alongside Venus and Earth. They all looked the same, but they have changed drastically since. Its' red color comes from minerals on Mars which have oxides of iron.

Mars used to have water and nowadays there is frozen water at both poles. In addition to water, Mars had the basic ingredients of life at the time. However, Mars is too cold to ever support human life, clocking in at a maximum of -195 degrees farenheit during winter. As well, Mars has very strong winds and a thin atmosphere, making this planet very dangerous. No one has made it to Mars yet except a US-owned rover and the first thing to come from Earth to go to Mars was Mariner 4.

It is only about half as wide. Mars runs 4,220 miles across. Furthermore, Mars isn't that far from Earth- only a little bit more than 48 million miles, being the closest planet to Earth besides the uninhabitable planet of Venus.There are 2 moons surrounding Mars; Phobos and Deimos, named for Mars' dogs in Roman mythology. Phobos and Deimos are believed to be asteroids sucked in by Mars' atmosphere. They sometimes overlap eachother in the sky, and are roughly potato-shaped. There are many gases on Mars like carbon dioxide, argon, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and a small amount of