Boris Nikitin
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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.
Learn about Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, and its history, climate, moons, and missions. See images, videos, and news from NASA's robotic explorers and human spaceflight plans.
Learn about Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, and its features, history, and potential for life. Find out how Mars compares to Earth in size, distance, orbit, seasons, moons, and more.
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.
- Mars is less than 56 million km (35 million miles) from Earth at its closest approach, but it recedes to almost 400 million km (250 million miles)...
- Mars is the second smallest planet in the solar system, only larger than Mercury and slightly more than half the size of Earth. It has an equatoria...
- Mars is similar to Earth in many ways. Like Earth, it has clouds, winds, a roughly 24-hour day, seasonal weather patterns, polar ice caps, volcanoe...
- The characteristic temperature on Mars in the lower atmosphere is about 200 kelvins (K; −100 °F, −70 °C), which is generally colder than the averag...
- The Viking landers are two robotic U.S. spacecraft launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the study of the planet...
- Space colonization, on Mars or elsewhere, is widely debated. Some argue humans have a moral duty to save our species from extinction, and space col...
- Why is Mars called the Red Planet? The bright rust color Mars is known for is due to iron-rich minerals in its regolith — the loose dust and rock covering its surface.
- Mars Q&A with an Expert. We asked David C. Agle media relations at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California which handles missions on the Martian surface such as the Perseverance Rover some questions about the Red Planet.
- Mars' surface. The planet's cold, thin atmosphere means liquid water likely cannot exist on the Martian surface for any appreciable length of time. Features called recurring slope lineae may have spurts of briny water flowing on the surface, but this evidence is disputed; some scientists argue the hydrogen spotted from orbit in this region may instead indicate briny salts.
- Mars' moons. The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall over the course of a week in 1877. Hall had almost given up his search for a moon of Mars, but his wife, Angelina, urged him on.
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Learn about the red planet's history, climate, geology, and potential for life in this comprehensive article. Discover how Mars compares to Earth and why it is a fascinating world to explore.
