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About Mars for Kids

Mars, the Red Planet, is Earth's closest neighbor in the solar system. It is a planet that has fascinated astronomers and scientists for decades. Mars holds appeal for both experts and the public alike because of its similarities to Earth and because of its mysteries, such as whether it once supported life.

The Name
- Like many planets in the solar system, Mars' name originates in ancient history. Mars was worshiped by the people of the Roman Empire who lived many centuries ago. Mars was the god who represented the soldiers who fought in wars as well as the farmers who worked on the land. The planet Mars was given its name as a result of its red color, which brings war and blood to mind.
Days and Years
- Like Earth, Mars orbits the sun, but because it's further away, it takes the Red Planet longer to make one full orbit. This means that while Mars has years just like Earth does, the years are a bit longer -- a Martian year takes about 687 Earth days. Mars' year is broken down into days, and the length of a Martian day is almost the same as an Earth day: about 24.62 hours.
Physical Landscape
- From a distance, Mars looks quite different from Earth. It is red, which is caused by the rust-colored dust that covers its surface and fills the atmosphere that surrounds it. Although Mars doesn't have any water (as far as scientists know in 2011) humans have found canyons and channels on Mars' surface, which suggest that Mars once had bodies of water in the same way that Earth has lakes and rivers. Like Earth, Mars' surface features volcanoes and mountains. One volcano on Mars, called Olympus Mons, is the biggest in the solar system. It stands 13 miles high.
Exploration
- Scientists have been sending out spacecraft since the 1960s. Expeditions have visited Mars to see whether Mars has any life forms and to discover how the planet was formed. All of these expeditions have been by robotic devices. These missions began in 1965 with a successful expedition by the spacecraft Mariner 4; later missions involved the Viking crafts and the Mars Pathfinder. As of July 2011, a robot geologist vehicle called Opportunity is still active on Mars. Opportunity arrived in 2004, and its mission chiefly involves investigating sites on the planet's surface that may have contained water in the past. NASA updates Opportunity's progress on its website.

Astronomy