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Mars comes closer to Earth more than any other planet save Venus at its nearest—56 million km is the closest distance between Mars and Earth, whereas the closest Venus comes to Earth is 40 million km. Mars comes closest to Earth every other year, around the time of its opposition, when Earth is sweeping between the Sun and Mars. Extra-close ...
Mars without (on left) and with a global dust storm in July 2001 (on right), including different visible water ice cloud covers, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System, reaching speeds of over 160 km/h (100 mph). These can vary from a storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the ...
Over 42,000 impact craters greater than 5 km in diameter have been catalogued on Mars, [51] and the number of smaller craters is probably innumerable. The density of craters on Mars is highest in the southern hemisphere, south of the dichotomy boundary. This is where most of the large craters and basins are located.
The Tharsis region of Mars also has the solar system's largest canyon system, Valles Marineris or the Mariner Valley, which is 4,000 km long and 7 km deep. Mars is also scarred by countless impact craters. The largest of these is the Hellas impact basin. See list of craters on Mars.
Deimos (/ ˈ d aɪ m ə s /; systematic designation: Mars II) [11] is the smaller and outer of the two natural satellites of Mars, the other being Phobos. Deimos has a mean radius of 6.2 km (3.9 mi) and takes 30.3 hours to orbit Mars. [5] Deimos is 23,460 km (14,580 mi) from Mars, much farther than Mars's other moon, Phobos. [12]
Mars has a higher scale height of 11.1 km than Earth (8.5 km) because of its weaker gravity. [5] The theoretical dry adiabatic lapse rate of Mars is 4.3 °C km −1, [131] but the measured average lapse rate is about 2.5 °C km −1 because the suspended dust particles absorb solar radiation and heat the air. [2]
The kilometre (SI symbol: km) is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1 000 meters (10 3 m). To help compare different orders of magnitude , this section lists lengths between 1 kilometer and 10 kilometers (10 3 and 10 4 meters ).
The composition of Mars covers the branch of the geology of Mars that describes the make-up of the planet Mars. " Hottah " rock outcrop on Mars – ancient streambed [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] viewed by the Curiosity Rover (September 12, 2012, white balanced ) ( raw , close-up , 3-D version ).