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While Mars's climate has similarities to Earth's, including periodic ice ages, there are also important differences, such as much lower thermal inertia. Mars' atmosphere has a scale height of approximately 11 km (36,000 ft), 60% greater than that on Earth. The climate is of considerable relevance to the question of whether life is or ever has ...
Comparison of the abundance of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon in the atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and Mars Despite the high concentration of CO 2 in the Martian atmosphere, the greenhouse effect is relatively weak on Mars (about 5 °C) because of the low concentration of water vapor and low atmospheric pressure.
The maximum angular separation of the Earth and Moon varies considerably according to the relative distance between the Earth and Mars: it is about 25′ when Earth is closest to Mars (near inferior conjunction) but only about 3.5′ when the Earth is farthest from Mars (near superior conjunction). For comparison, the apparent diameter of the ...
In comparison, the difference between Earth's highest and lowest points (Mount Everest and the Mariana Trench) is only 19.7 km. Combined with the planets' different radii, this means Mars is nearly three times "rougher" than Earth.
The difference in the concentration of dust in Earth's atmosphere and that of Mars stems from a key factor. On Earth, dust that leaves atmospheric suspension usually gets aggregated into larger particles through the action of soil moisture or gets suspended in oceanic waters. It helps that most of Earth's surface is covered by liquid water ...
Microscopic images of the soil taken by Opportunity revealed small spherically shaped granules. They were first seen on pictures taken on Sol 10, right after the rover drove from the lander onto martian soil. When Opportunity dug her first trench (Sol 23), pictures of the lower layers showed similar round spherules. But this time they had a ...
At inferior conjunction (for the terrestrial observer, this is the opposition of Mars and the Sun), the maximum visible distance between the Earth and the Moon would be about 25′, which is close to the apparent size of the Moon in Earth's sky. The angular size of Earth is between 48.1″ and 6.6″ and of the Moon between 13.3″ and 1.7 ...
The most conspicuous feature of Mars is a sharp contrast, known as the Martian dichotomy, between the Southern and the Northern hemispheres.The two hemispheres' geography differ in elevation by 1 to 3 km.