Evan Szierer, Brandon Medeiros, Jeanine Neves
Introduction
 Mars is the fourth planet in our solar system, located
between Earth and Jupiter
 Mars is about half the size of Earth with a rotational
period of 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds (1.03
Earth days)
 It takes 686.98 days for Mars to orbit the sun; just a
few days less than two earth years
 Mars has a mass of 0.64174 x 1024
Intro continued…
 Diameter of mars is 6800 km across, 53% of Earth’s
 The density of mars is 3.940 g/cm3 , only 10% of Earth’s
 Mars is about 207
to 249 million Km
from the sun
 Mars, with an axial
tilt of 25.19%,
experience 4
different seasons
Intro continued…
 Eccentricity of Mars is 9.35%, its orbit differs by about
50 million km’s on one side of the sun
 The surface gravity on Mars is only 38% the gravity on
Earth; in perspective, if you weighed 100kg on earth,
you’d weigh 38kg on Mars
History
 Mars has been documented
in the night sky for about the
last 4000 years
 Johannes Kepler theorized
that the orbit of Mars was
elliptical
History continued…
 Around 1550, Nicolaus Copernicus
is the first to hypothesize that mars
is in fact a planet
 You may recognize the name Copernicus as the
astronomer who presented the idea of heliocentric
orbit (1543)
 Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer made accurate
calculations of the position of Mars as early as 1576
History continued…
 Mars was first mapped in 1877 by Italian astronomer
Giovanni Schiaparelli
 In 1910, American astronomer, Percival Lowell made
observations of Mars and wrote a book (bringing
generations of sci-fi novels and films)
 He sketched the planet, which included a series of
streaks or lines, called canali… this popularized the
idea of life on mars
Since then, they have found surprising evidence
of an odd race on Mars.
Formation of Mars
 Mars was formed about 4.6 billion years ago
 Dust particles, gas and ice within proplanetary disk
collide
 Contents inside disk collide over millions of years
(forming larger and larger objects until planet takes
shape)
 Energy from these collisions heated up Mars, giving it
a molten core and volcanic activity
How Mars was Formed
Moons of Mars
 Mars has 2 moons, thought to be captured from an
asteroid belt
 Both moons were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall
 It’s possible that Mars may have moons smaller than
50–100 metres in width
 Both moons orbit almost exactly
on mars’ equatorial plane
 How Mars got its Moons - Theory
Moons of Mars
Phobos
 Larger of two and closest to surface
 Radius: 11.3 km (our moon radius: 1737 km)
 Eccentricity: 0.0151
 Orbits 6000 km above Martian surface in 7 hours, 39
minutes (orbital period of 0.318 earth days)
 Mass: 1.0659 x 1016 kg
 Phobos orbits so close that one complete orbit has
occoured before Mars has spun fully
 Rises in west and sets in east twice a day
Moons of Mars
Deimos
 Smaller and outermost
moon of mars
 Mass: 1.471 x 1015 kg
 Radius: 6.2 km
 Eccentricity: 0.000 33
(almost a perfect circular orbit)
 Orbital period: 1.263 (earth days)
Diemos
Phobos
Physical Structure (layers)
Due to solar isolation, there are ice caps of ice and dust
on Mars’s poles. These ice caps have layers that reflect the past
climate variations. These ice caps are kilometers thick and its
layers can be seen in cliffs and valley slopes.
People have tried to link the solar isolation with the
layer formation for years but so far it does not seem like one
may be able to find a relationship between the two. A
researcher, Christine Hvidberg, has used a model to explain
the link between solar isolation and the layer formation. The
model shows that the dust-rich layers can be formed by two
processes. One process states that when the rotational axis of
Mars tilts down during the summer, this causes high
evaporation of the ice, the other process the variations in the
axial tilt causing variations in dust accumulation.
Physical Structure (layers) continued…
The upper 500 meters of
the ice caps are equivalent to
approximately 1 million years old
as dated by the model. The
model also stated that 0.55mm of
ice and dust accumulate each
year on average. This data helps
prove that Mars’ climate history
is over 1 million years old.
Chemical Composition
Due to the fact that Mars is a terrestrial planet it up of
metallic iron and nickel which is surrounded by a silicate
mantle which is less dense then the rest of the silicates with
Mars. All of this is surrounded my Mars’ crust. The oxidation
of iron on the planet’s surface or the creation of iron oxide
commonly referred to as rust gives Mars’ its red colouring.
Although Mars’ true colour is more of a golden brown, the
red dust is mainly in the atmosphere making it seem like the
planet is red from a distance. is very similar to Earth as it
contains silicates which are minerals that contain oxygen and
silicon, as well as metals and other elements typically made
of rock. Also like Earth, Mars has a central core made
Chemical Composition continued…
Based on found
data, scientists have
concluded that the most
abundant chemical
element in Mars’ crust,
besides silicon and
oxygen, is iron,
magnesium, aluminum,
calcium and potassium.
Chemical Composition continued…
The elements titanium, chromium, manganese, sulfur,
phosphorus, sodium and chlorine are also found on Mars, they
are however less abundant. On Mars hydrogen can be found in
ice and other hydrated minerals, carbon is in carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere and also as dry ice at the planet’s poles. Molecular
nitrogen makes up 2.7 percent of the atmosphere and though it
seems there is no organic compounds on Mars there are traces of
methane in the atmosphere. Mars is also very different than the
Earth due to its mantle being twice as rich in iron, its core being
more rich sulphur and Mars’ mantle is richer in potassium and
phosphorus. The Earth’s crust also contains a smaller percentage
of volatile elements like sulphur and chlorine than Mars does.
Surface Conditions
Mars, unlike Earth, has no plate tectonics as well as wind
and rain which all cause erosion, because of this there are no
environmental forces to erode away the impact craters that are
dotted around Mars’ surface. Also due to the lack of plate
tectonics the planet’s volcanoes would be able to erupt for millions
of years without stopping and that the same rapture could stay
open and continue to force magma to the surface until there was
no more pressure to do so.
The largest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons,
is located on Mars; it formed due to the massive amount of
erupted magma hardening on the planet’s surface. There is also a
volcano on Mars called Pavonis Mons which was discovered by
accident. It is in a chain of volcanoes known as the Tharsis
Montes. The cavern within the volcano is an estimated 20 meters
deep.
Surface Conditions continued…
Even though Mars is thought to not to have any plate
tectonics, some believe that due to the fact that the three
main volcanoes are in a straight line, it could be a result of
plate motion. This may prove that Mars may indeed have
plate tectonics.
Questions
1. What is the name of the largest mountain in the Solar
System?
Olympus Mons
2. Mars’ core is made up of metallic iron and nickel. True
or False?
True
3. Mars looks red due to:
a) the chemical pigments in the soil
b) red dust in the atmosphere
c) the surface temperature reacting with the planets
composition
(C)
Questions
4. Phobos is the smaller of the two Martian moons. True
or False.
False
5. Who hypothesized that mars was in fact a planet?
a.) Tycho Brahe
b.) Nicolaus Copernicus
c.) Giovanni Schiaparelli
(B)
Questions
 6.) Silicates, like those found on Mars contain:
Iron and Oxygen
b.) Carbon and Magnesium
c.)Oxygen and Silicon d.) Silicon and Iron
 7. What could the chain of volcanoes on Mars being in a
straight line prove?
 8. What is located at Mars’ poles and why?
a.)
Work Cited
 http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/topic/actionWin?
 http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/AcademicJournalsD
etailsWindow?
 http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?
 http://www.universetoday.com/14885/mars-surface/
 http://www.3horoscopes.com/images/space-solar-system-mars.gif
 http://www.universetoday.com/22603/mars-compared-to-earth/
 http://space-facts.com/wp-content/uploads/mars-size.png PIC
 http://3dprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mars-feat.jpg
 http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/images/copernicus3.jpg
 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/04/27/the_man_wh
o_invented_mars/?page=full
 http://www.answers.com/Q/What_do_all_silicates_minerals_contain
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA_shvf-RoE