Red Planet Day 2023

daneelyunus

Nov 28

Introduction – Red Planet Day is observed every year on November 28 worldwide to honor the launch of the Mariner 4 by NASA, a robotic interplanetary probe, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on November 28, 1964. This spacecraft became the first spacecraft to fly past Mars and was designed for flying past planets. It is also the first mission to successfully take photos or images of Mars.

Mars is also popularly called as Red Planet because of the iron oxide or rust on the surface of this planet that gives it a reddish appearance. The main goal of this global day is to create awareness about Mars and the fascinating findings of this planet worldwide. Mars is the second-smallest planet in the Solar System which is larger than only Mercury and is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is also a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere that contains a crust mainly composed of elements, which are similar to the crust of the Earth.

Olympus Mons is the highest known planetary mountain and the largest volcano on Mars in the Solar System. Mars may be viewed with the naked eye from the Earth in a reddish color. The appearance of reddish color of Mars due to the iron oxide is present on the surface of Mars and is also called as Red Planet. It is the brightest object in the sky of the Earth with an apparent magnitude reaches 2.94. The main purpose of this global day is to inform people about amazing facts of Mars across the world

Amazing facts about Mars – There are several amazing facts about Mars are discussed below –

Mars contain a thin atmosphere, which is mainly made up of carbon dioxide with two irregularly shaped Phobos, Natural Satellites, and Deimos.
Mars is also popularly called as Red Planet as the iron oxide or rust on the surface of this planet that gives it a reddish appearance. But sometimes it also appears golden, greenish, and brown.
The atmosphere of Mars contains around carbon dioxide 96 percent, argon 1.93 percent, and 1.89 percent nitrogen with traces of water and oxygen.
The red planet contains the largest dust storms in the solar system and can last for months that cover the whole planet.
Mars has 2 moons that namely Phobos and Deimos as compared with Earth has only one moon. The two moons or natural satellites on Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall in the year 1877. The diameter of Phobos is about 14 mi (22 kilometers), and Deimos is about 7.5 mi (12 kilometers).
The duration of days on Mars is 24 hours and 37 minutes and is longer than the Earth due to the orbit around the sun of Mars being larger than the Earth.
Mount Olympus is the highest or tallest volcano on Mars in the solar system with 21.9 km or 72,000 ft tall which is approximately 2.5 times as compared with the height of Mount Everest.
Galileo Galilei was the first person to observe Mars with the help of a telescope in the year 1610.
Mars is the second-smallest planet in the Solar System which is larger than only Mercury and is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System