Boris Nikitin
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Mars is one of the easiest planets to spot in the night sky – it looks like a bright red point of light. Despite being inhospitable to humans, robotic explorers – like NASA's Perseverance rover – are serving as pathfinders to eventually get humans to the surface of the Red Planet.
Mars is approximately half the diameter of Earth, with a surface area only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land. Mars is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of Earth's mass, resulting in about 38% of Earth's surface gravity.
When the solar system settled into its current layout about 4.5 billion years ago, Mars formed when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become the fourth planet from the Sun. Mars is about half the size of Earth, and like its fellow terrestrial planets, it has a central core, a rocky mantle, and a solid crust.
Overview. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun – a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. Mars is also a dynamic planet with seasons, polar ice caps, canyons, extinct volcanoes, and evidence that it was even more active in the past.
4 days ago · Mars is the fourth planet in the solar system in order of distance from the Sun and the seventh in size and mass. It is a periodically conspicuous reddish object in the night sky. There are intriguing clues that billions of years ago Mars was even more Earth-like than today.
Jul 30, 2020 · NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is building a unique rock collection, which also includes samples of Mars atmosphere and loose surface material. These samples record the history of the Jezero Crater landing site, and may even preserve signs of ancient life.
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program will focus the next two decades on its science-driven systemic approach on these strategic goals: exploring for potential life, understanding the geology and climate of Mars, and preparation for human exploration.
Dec 15, 2021 · Explore Mars' Jezero Crater with NASA’s Perseverance Rover. Watch on. Taken by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument, this video – narrated by Perseverance Project Scientist Ken Farley – features an enhanced-color composite image that pans across Jezero Crater’s delta on Mars. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS.
View all Mars missions. For more than half a century, NASA's fleet of increasingly sophisticated orbiters, landers, and rovers has helped us transform science fiction into reality, enabling us to piece together detailed information about Mars, our nearest planetary neighbor.
Jul 20, 2021 · NASA’s Perseverance Rover Begins the Hunt. July 20, 2021. The robotic arm on NASA’s Perseverance rover reached out to examine rocks in an area on Mars nicknamed the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough” area in this image captured on July 10, 2021 (the 138th sol, or Martian day, of its mission). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
