Have you been asking such fascinating questions to your parents? Did you get the answers? Clarifying the space concepts like stars, planets, and the universe may be difficult for them unless your parents are a science lecturer or a NASA scientist (they know all the facts of mars for kids).
Have you ever found yourself curious about all the things that are happening in the space? Most probably you may have. Recently you may often be seen in the newspapers and TV channels regarding the researches carried on the planet Mars.
In this article, you are going to find out some alluring facts of mars for kids along with some fantastic movies made on the mars and other space activities.
Mars Facts for Kids– The fourth planet from the sun
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Mars is the second smallest planet in the solar system, first being the Mercury, and it’s the fourth planet from the sun. Mars is popularly known as the Red Planet because of its reddish color by the look. It’s the last terrestrial planet. We are aware of numerous facts about Mars as it’s the planet that is close to the Earth and there have been a plethora of successful missions accomplished to explore more on the planet.
Scientists have wondered for many years if life may exist on Mars. This Red Planet which is half the size of the Earth isn’t much like Earth in characteristics as previously scientists had thought. There are plenty of giant crevices and canyons mark on the surface of the Mars, to which scientists believe that it once had plenty of water on it. However, today only a little amount of ice may be found which is believed to be present below the surface.
I guess you all know about Elon Musk’s, who is acknowledged as the real-time Ironman, plans to colonize Mars for the living before the Earth becomes unlivable because of the climatic change. In this article, you are going to witness the most gobsmacking facts of Mars for kids as well as for adults.
Do you think we could ever make it to Mars? Can we start living there as we are living right here?
If yes, we have to be aware of the fun facts about Mars to rejoice our journey on the spaceship. Let’s go find out mesmerizing facts of Mars for kids and see what we are waiting to see in the future.
Fun facts of Mars for Kids
1. Why was it named as ‘Mars’?
The Romans knew about objects in the sky. They knew of Sun, moons and other brightest planets in the sky. They named most of these terrestrial objects after their important gods. Romans were known as great warriors and they believed in Mars, the god of war. God of war was the most important god for them and believed that he blessed for the bloodshed of opposition. Hence, they named the Red planet as the Mars whose color was similar to blood.
2. Heard of 8848 mts Mt. Everest? Well, quadruple it on Mars
The highest mountain in the Solar system is situated on Mars. The name of this mountain is Olympus Mons which is 27 km tall. It’s the youngest and largest volcano shield that was discovered in the 19th century on Mars. It’s a shield volcano that couldn’t break out for millions of years as Mars doesn’t have any tectonic plates association. I guess some of you kids will be eager to become the first man/woman to climb the Olympus Mons. This is one of the astounding facts of Mars for kids.
3. How long is a Mars day and how long is a year?
Mars takes 24.6 hours to finish one rotation around its axis. It also needs 1.88 times of what Earth takes to revolve one round around the Sun. Hence, we conclude that a normal day on Mars consists of 24 hours of earth plus 37 minutes. And one year on Mars is equal to 687 days on the earth. Spellbound? You should be!! It’s because you’ll have to wait as long as two years on earth to celebrate New Year.
4. All those worrying about the overweight, just save your money to buy a ticket to Mars.
Do you know people who are spending way too much on reducing the weight? Tell them about these interesting fun facts about Mars. The gravitational pull on Mars is only 38 percent that of the earth. So, if a person has a weight of 100kgs on earth, then he would weigh only 38kgs on Mars. I am curious to know what will be the height of the basketball pole. It’s because you would be surprised to know that you can jump three times higher than what you could achieve on the earth. Come On!! Elon Musk, Pace up the process and let us land on the Mars in this lifetime. The human body will need a new BMI (Body Mass Index) and a number of calculations to fit us to the Martian gravity.
5. Moons of the Mars
Visualize how it feels to look at two moons in the sky at a time. Yes, Mars has two moons revolving around it. One is Deimos which means panic and the other is Phobos which means fear. But, compared to the earth’s moon, these moons are very minor in size. Deimos has a diameter of 12 km whereas the diameter of Phobos is 22.2km. According to Roman mythology, Mars (god of war), rode on two horses named as Phobos and Deimos. These moons were named after these horses.
6. Is there water on Mars?
Scientists have noticed certain facts on Mars which shows there is frozen water (about the combined size of California and Texas) under the Martian surface. On September 2015, NASA released new information that they found new evidence to show there flows liquid water on the Martian surface. This breaking news was achieved using Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) which spotted hydrated minerals at the Martian slope, the spot where we gaze the red streaks on the Mars.
Unfortunately, United States Geological Survey (USGS) carried out a fresh study on this amazing discovery only to come up with result that the red streaks spotted earlier were the marks of sand, but not water.
7. Magnetic fields on Mars
The atmosphere on Mars is very thin and 96 percent of it consists of carbon dioxide. Mars also doesn’t have enough hot liquid to generate a magnetic field around it. Howbeit, it does have a magnetosphere. You may care to ask, what’s a magnetosphere?
Well, it’s a layer in the vicinity of the atmosphere that protects the planet from electrically charged foreign objects from crashing into the surface of the Mars. But, the magnetosphere of Mars is not as extensive as Earth’s, but still, we might well be fine with this in the Mars. Won’t you agree?
8. What’s the size of Mars?
The volume of Mars is 1/6th the volume of earth. Comparatively, the mass of Mars is 1/10th that of the earth. Diametrically, Mars has a measurement of 6790km while the earth is measured at 12750 km. It suggests that Mars is slightly bigger in size than half the size of the earth. I guess you kids should properly manage your population out there, unlike us.
9. Temperatures on Mars
Brace yourself while you learn about this fact. Mars can be as hot as 70-degree Celsius and as cold as -153 degree Celsius, as it’s too far from the Sun. Amusingly, the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth was -89.2 degree Celsius. According to the article “Facts of Venus for Kids” the atmosphere of Mars and Venus are found similar. Venus has a dry, hot and thick atmosphere and Mars has a cold and very thin atmosphere. But still, the processes are happening the same on both the planets.
10. Do Mars have seasons like us?
Yeah. Mars too has seasons. Similar to the earth, Mars also is located along its axis which sources for different seasons in a calendar year. These seasons are very longer than earth seasons as Mars is way too farther from the Sun.
11. Polar ice caps
You may know be aware that we have polar ice caps on earth. Apart from the earth, Mars is the only planet to have ice caps. The south cap is named as the Planum Australe and the north cap is named as the Planum Boreum.
12. Mars has a similar landmass to earth
Though Mars is half the size of the earth, kid facts about Earth say that the landmass of Mars is almost equal to the landmass of the earth. The reason is the most part of the land on earth is covered by the water.
13. Massive dust storms
Research on dust storms through Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) reported that dust storms on Mars solely constitute the 10 percent of total water loss on it. The storms on Mars are so massive that they can travel at a speed of 66 km/h and can cover the whole planet.
Conclusion on facts of mars for kids
How do you think we could bring all these fun facts of Mars for kids? Like I mentioned before, scientists are working day and night to explore Mars. As many as 39 missions were launched to Mars in since many years. Out of these 16 missions have been successful which include landers, rovers, and orbiters.
These NASA rovers are called Opportunity and Curiosity. These rovers consistently render information about Mars.
Interestingly, there are also 13 active robots on Mars. It’s the only planet in the solar system that is inhabited by robots.