MARS

Hello, and welcome to my epic blog.  Today I'm going to talk about the planet  . . .  MARS! 

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the second smallest planet in the Solar System.  See it?

Here's a close up view of Mars:

It looks reddish, right?  Mars is often called "The Red Planet" because iron minerals in the soil oxidize, or rust, giving the surface a reddish appearance.  This reddish coloring reminded ancient Roman astronomers of blood.  Therefore, they named the little planet after Mars, their god of war:

Side note:  The ancient Greeks who also named the planet after their god of war, Ares:

Back to Mars, the planet.

Mars is a rocky planet.  If you look closely at the surface, you'll see evidence of volcanoes and craters:

Mars has a cold, thin atmosphere, made up mostly of carbon dioxide (about 95%).  It also contains small amounts nitrogen and argon. 

Mars is much colder than Earth, mostly because it is so much further from the Sun.  The average temperature is about minus 64 degrees F!  

Side note:  The coldest place on Earth is Vostok, Antarctica.  The average winter temperature there is minus 75 degrees F.  It's also where the coldest temperature ever on Earth was recorded - minus 128.56 degrees F!!!

Back to Mars . . .

Like Earth, Mars experiences seasons due to the tilt of its rotational axis.  These seasons are a lot more extreme than Earth's because of its oval-shaped orbit around the Sun.  The atmosphere on Mars is a lot less dense than the atmosphere on Earth, but it can still support weather, clouds, and winds.  Mars has many large dust storms, which can blanket the planet in red dust and can last for months.

Mars is covered with channels, valleys, and gullies.  These suggest that water might have flowed over the surface of Mars in recent times.  The atmosphere now is cold and thin, which means that liquid water cannot currently exist on the surface for any length of time.

In 2001, a probe launched by the United States found vast amounts of water ice beneath the surface of Mars.  We're not sure if more water lies beneath.

While Earth has only one moon, Mars has two:

They are named Phobos and Deimos and were discovered by an American astronomer in 1877:

 The moons are named after the sons of the Greek god Ares.  "Phobos" means "fear," while "deimos" means "rout," or "expel by force."

Phobos and Deimos are made of carbon-rich rock mixed with  ice.  They are covered in dust and loose rocks.  They're tiny compared to Earth's moon.  As you can see, they're irregularly shaped.  The surface of both moons show crater impacts.  Scientists are not sure whether the moons are really asteroids that were captured by Mars' gravitational pull, or whether they were formed in orbit around Mars at the same time Mars came into existence.

NASA recently sent a rover named Curiosity to Mars.  Curiosity is a six wheeled robot that is about the size of a car. This is no ordinary robot - Curiosity has parts that are meant to be similar to human parts.  It has a "body," (a structure), "brains," (computers), temperature controls, "head," (cameras),  and "limbs," (parts for mobility), among other things.  

The first part of Curiosity's mission is to see if Mars ever could have supported microbes, which are small life forms.  The second part is to see if people could survive on Mars some day. 

Now . . . MY TOP FIVE INTERESTING FACTS FOR THE PLANET MARS!!!

5.  Mars has seasons!
4.  Mars has a solid terrain!
3.  Mars contains dry ice!
2.  Ancient Chinese astronomers called Mars "the fire star."

And my number one interesting fact about Mars is . . . .  Among the planets in our Solar System, Mars is the top candidate for supporting human life!

Thanks for reading my blog!



SOLAR SYSTEM:  MERCURY AND VENUS

Get ready.  I'm about to compare and contrast the planets Mercury and Venus.  Sounds boring?  Well, I wouldn't let that happen!
First, let's talk about Mercury.

This is the Roman god Mercury.  Percy Jackson fans, this is all review for you.  Unless you've never read the "Heroes of Olympus" series.  If you only read the original Percy Jackson series, your "Mercury" is the Greek version of the god, named Hermes, and he looks like this:

So what does this have to do with the planet Mercury? The planet was actually named after the god.  Good to know, huh! 
Back to the planet Mercury.  Here's what it looks like:

This may look like a boring chunk of rock, but Mercury is actually a pretty intense and extreme planet. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.  See . . .

You would think it would be extremely hot on Mercury because it's so close to the sun.  Well, you'd be half right. This is because Mercury rotates very slowly.  So the side facing the side gets extremely hot, while the other side gets extremely cold.
If Earth ever challenged Mercury to a race around the sun, Earth would lose big time.  Mercury speeds around the sun at around 48 kilometers per second.  Our planet can only manage about 30 kilometers per second. 

This is Mercury.

This is Earth.

There is no atmosphere on Mercury.  That means it doesn't have a sky.  It's more like an asteroid floating in space.

An atmosphere like the one on Earth stops asteroids before they hit by burning them up.  Because there's no atmosphere on Mercury, Mercury gets pelted by asteroids every day.

If you were to stand on Mercury, all you'd see is stars.  This would never happen:

I'd choose Earth any day.  Enough about Mercury.

Now on to Venus.

Yep, you guessed it.  This is the Roman goddess, Venus.  For Percy Jackson fans who never kept reading, you know this goddess as Aphrodite:

Do I really have to tell you that the planet Venus is named after the goddess?  No?  I didn't think so.

Venus is second-closest to the sun.  Check this out again . . .

 


It's often been stated that Venus is our sister planet. Untrue. Completely untrue.

Venus is hot to the hottest degree. Way hotter than Mercury even though it's farther away from the sun.

You can thank CO2 for that. Thick clouds block the sun completely, but they lock in the heat, therefore it is never cool.
Also, Venus is naturally volcanic.  Magma and sulfur pits create lots of CO2, which is locked in by the clouds, creating a mega greenhouse effect. 

A day on Venus would feel like a day doing algebra problems.  One day on Venus literally lasts eight Earth-months. 

So that's it, epic scientist.  Now you know everything you need to know about Mercury and Venus. 
See ya, people.