1. Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

2.  Known to Babylonians 3,600 years ago as “Star that Wandered”  The Greeks referred to it as “Ares” the god of War  Romans called it Mars

3. Image Courtesy of NASA

4.  Distance from Sun ≈1.52 times as far as Earth  Time to Orbit the Sun ~ 26 Earth months  Atmosphere ~ Mostly carbon dioxide  Martian Day ~ 24.7 hours  Temperature on the planet’s surface hardly rises above freezing point

5. EarthMarsRadius 6378 km 3397 km Density 5515 kg/m 3 3933 kg/m 3 Gravity 9.8 m/s 2 3.72 m/s 2 Year 365.25 days 686.98 days Eccentricity0.0170.094 Day 24 hours 24 hr 39 min Obliquity23.45º25.19º

6. Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

7.  Surface Color: “Red”  Features  Impact Craters  Largest volcano in the solar system (Olympus Mons)  Largest Canyon in the Solar System (Valles Marineris)  Ancient river channels  Lava Rocks  Dust: Reddish from volcanic rock Valles Marineris Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

8.  Unbreathable  Thin  Dusty, makes the sky pinkish, lots of dust storms  Surface Pressure: 1/150 th of Earth’s (only 5.6 millibars)  Composition: 95% CO 2, 3% N, 1.5% Ar, 0.1% O 2, 0.03% H 2 O

9.  Mars has two tiny moons named “Deimos” (Panic) & “Phobos” (Fear)  The moons are irregular and very small in size  Phobos 27x22x18 km  Deimos 15x12x10 km  The moons are probably asteroids captured by Mars DeimosPhobos Image Courtesy of NASA

10.  Water is the key to life as we know it  The north and south poles of Mars are covered with thick ice or frost  Some astronomers about 100 years ago thought there were canals on Mars dug by intelligent civilization  Space probes to date have not found any traces of canals on Mars

11.  Viking 1 and 2 in 1976  First pictures of Martian surface Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

12.  Pathfinder in 1997  Roving vehicle – Sojourner to explore Martian surface Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

13.  Mars Global Surveyor  Accomplishes all the tasks of its mission  And still going Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

14.  Discovered subsurface water ice near poles  Track changes of polar ice, clouds and dust storms  Generated maps of radiation and minerals Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

15.  Spirit  Landed January 3, 2004  Opportunity  Landed January 24, 2004 Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

18. Pictured: An Ancient Martian?

19. Unusual Gullies and Channels on Mars

20. Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars

21. A Face On Mars

22. Close-up of the Face on Mars

23. Earth Rise