- Mars is the planet that's "most like" the Earth, even though it's half the size.
These fun facts about Mars may surprise you. You’ll have to let me know which fun facts surprised you!
- A Martian day is called a sol.
- The southern hemisphere of Mars has lots of highland as well as lots of craters.
- Mars’s gravity is only about 38% as much as Earth’s.
- Mars is the second smallest planet in the solar system, with only mercury being smaller.
- A Mars dust storm can reach up 125 miles per hour in wind speeds.
- Mars formed about 4.5 billion years ago.
- Martian “soil” is called regolith.
- Mars also has the biggest canyon in our Solar System, called Valles Marineris. It is 2,500 mi long and 4 miles deep. (To compare, the Grand Canyon on Earth is only 226 miles long, and only 1 mile deep.)
- Mars actually has many more colors than just red. At the surface of Mars, you can actually see more than red, like gold, tan, and brown.
- Mars is a cold planet and further from the sun than the Earth. It’s about 68 degrees F at the equator of Mars, but once you get to the piles, the temperature can be as low as -284 degrees. And the average temperature is about -80F, which is literally deathly cold. Did you know this as one of the fun facts about Mars?
- Mars has the largest dust storms in the solar system, lasting for months and covering the entire planet.
- A day on Mars is 24 hours and 37 minutes, slightly longer than an Earth day.
- The planet Mars is Named after the Roman God of war because of its red color. (Red symbolizing blood.)
- The Mars moons are potato-shaped because they have too little mass for gravity to make them spherical.
- The lack of gravity on Mars can lead to a loss of calcium and weaker bones when astronauts or space travelers return to Earth.
- Mars is about 4,219 miles long. This is one of the most boring but true fun facts about Mars.
- Just like Earth, the surface of Mars is hard and rocky, meaning it’s a terrestrial planet and a planet you can walk on.
- The northern hemisphere of Mars doesn’t have many craters and instead is more smooth.
- Earth and Mars are the only two planets in the solar system with polar ice caps both made of carbon dioxide, also known as dry ice.
- Mars is called the “Red Planet” because of iron-rich soil. The iron rusts and turns to oxide, so it’s looks like the surface and atmosphere of Mars are red.
- Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. You probably knew this as one of the fun facts about Mars, didn’t you?
- A year on Mars is 687 Earth days long (almost twice as long as Earth years). It takes Mars longer to get around the sun because it’s further away.
- Planets like Jupiter and Saturn are known as gas giants, meaning you cannot walk on the surface of them.
- Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Both moons of Mars are smaller than Earth’s moon.
- A total of 43,000 craters with a diameter of at least 5 km (3.1 mi) have been found on the surface of Mars.
- The moon Phobos is predicted to suffer a collision with Mars in the distant future, as it’s slowly moving toward Mars. Slowly like it’s set to break apart and/or crash into Mars. Very different outcomes but it’s not set to happen for another 50 million years. This is one of the fun facts about Mars that isn’t that fun.
- Earth is twice as big as Mars bit has about the same amount of land mass. How? Most of Earth is covered in water.
- November 28 is “Red Planet Day” in the United States and has been celebrated since 1964 when Mariner 4 visited Mars.
- If Mars were, the earth, two Mars would fit.
- You could jump much higher on Mars because gravity is weaker there. (You’d weigh “way” less, too.)
- Mars is home to the highest mountain and largest volcano in our solar system. Volcano Olympus Mons is 14 miles high, which is three times the height of Mount Everest in comparison.
So what were you favorite fun facts about Mars? Tell me the best ones in the comments!