November 28, 2023 – Mars

Today is Red Planet Day, commemorating the launch of NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft on this day in 1964. Mariner 4 completed the first successful flyby of Mars and produced the first close-up photos of the Martian surface. These were the first ever close-up pictures to come from deep space.
Mars was given its name by the Romans, who named it after their God of war because the red color reminded them of blood. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It gets its reddish color from the finely-grained iron oxide dust in its soil. It takes 687 Earth days for Mars to orbit around the sun, and each Mars day (called a sol) lasts 24.6 hours. Mars has 2 relatively small moons, Phobos and Deimos, which translates to fear and dread, respectively.
Like Earth, Mars has polar ice caps, canyons, and its own weather systems. It’s also home to the largest volcano in the solar system. It’s called Olympus Mons and it’s 3 times as tall as Mount Everest! The temperature on Mars is extremely variable, swinging as high as 70 degrees to as low as -225 degrees. Mars also has massive dust storms that can reach 100 mph and envelope the entire planet. One storm in 2018 was so large it covered the planet for more than a month.
Mars is among the brightest objects in the sky, so it’s been known since ancient times. In the 19th and 20th centuries, some researchers believed there was a network of long, straight canals on Mars that hinted at possible civilization. Because of this, the concept of Mars being populated by intelligent life became widespread in the late 19th century, with many science fiction novels inspired by this idea.
Since the launch of Mariner 4, dozens of crewless spacecraft like orbiters, landers, and rovers have been sent to Mars to study its climate, surface, and geology. There are currently 13 functioning spacecraft studying Mars, 8 in orbit and 5 on the surface, including NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers. Privately held companies like Space X have also proposed plans to send humans to Mars, with the goal of eventually settling the planet. Learn more here.