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Mars hosts many enormous extinct volcanoes (the tallest is Olympus Mons, 21.9 km or 13.6 mi tall) and one of the largest canyons in the Solar System (Valles Marineris, 4,000 km or 2,500 mi long). Geologically , the planet is fairly active with marsquakes trembling underneath the ground, dust devils sweeping across the landscape, and cirrus clouds .
Mars has an orbit with a semimajor axis of 1.524 astronomical units (228 million km) (12.673 light minutes), and an eccentricity of 0.0934. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The planet orbits the Sun in 687 days [ 3 ] and travels 9.55 AU in doing so, [ 4 ] making the average orbital speed 24 km/s.
The sixteen equatorial quadrangles are the smallest, with surface areas of 4,500,000 square kilometres (1,700,000 sq mi) each, while the twelve mid-latitude quadrangles each cover 4,900,000 square kilometres (1,900,000 sq mi). The two polar quadrangles are the largest, with surface areas of 6,800,000 square kilometres (2,600,000 sq mi) each.
Mars is located 142,000,000 miles away from the Sun. Named after the Roman God of war, Mars is widely known for its blood-red color. Chinese astronomers even used to call Mars the 'fire star'.
Size comparison between Phobos, Deimos and the Moon (right) Deimos is a gray-colored body. Like most bodies of its size, Deimos is highly non-spherical with triaxial dimensions of 16.1 km × 11.8 km × 10.2 km (10.0 mi × 7.3 mi × 6.3 mi), corresponding to a mean diameter of 12.5 km (7.8 mi) which makes it about 57% the size of Phobos. [ 7 ]
Global study of residual Bouguer anomaly data indicates that crustal thickness of Mars varies from 5.8 km to 102 km. [5] Two major peaks at 32 km and 58 km are identified from an equal-area histogram of crustal thickness. [5] These two peaks are linked to the crustal dichotomy of Mars. [5]
A closer comparison can be made to crewed high-altitude aircraft, which must withstand forces of 1,100 to 1,400 pounds per square foot (5,400 to 6,800 kg/m 2) when at altitude. [7] At about 150 thousand feet of altitude (28 miles (45 km)) on Earth, the atmospheric pressure starts to be equivalent to the surface of Mars. [23]
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