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Climate of Mars. Mars' cloudy sky as seen by Perseverance rover in 2023, sol 738. The climate of Mars has been a topic of scientific curiosity for centuries, in part because it is the only terrestrial planet whose surface can be easily directly observed in detail from the Earth with help from a telescope. Although Mars is smaller than the Earth ...
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. The surface of Mars is orange-red because it is covered in iron (III) oxide dust, giving it the nickname " the Red Planet ". [22][23] Mars is among the brightest objects in Earth's sky, and its high-contrast albedo features have made it a common subject for telescope viewing.
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, [129] 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]
Areography. High-resolution colorized map of Mars based on Viking orbiter images. Surface frost and water ice fog brighten the impact basin Hellas to the right of lower center; Syrtis Major just above it is darkened by winds that sweep dust off its basaltic surface. Residual north and south polar ice caps are shown at upper and lower right as ...
Mars Climate Orbiter. The Mars Climate Orbiter (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) was a robotic space probe launched by NASA on December 11, 1998, to study the Martian climate, Martian atmosphere, and surface changes and to act as the communications relay in the Mars Surveyor '98 program for Mars Polar Lander.
On October 13, 1590, the German astronomer Michael Maestlin observed an occultation of Mars by Venus. [23] One of his students, Johannes Kepler, quickly became an adherent to the Copernican system. After the completion of his education, Kepler became an assistant to the Danish nobleman and astronomer, Tycho Brahe.
The Mars 1M programs (sometimes dubbed Marsnik in Western media) was the first Soviet uncrewed spacecraft interplanetary exploration program, which consisted of two flyby probes launched towards Mars in October 1960, Mars 1960A and Mars 1960B (also known as Korabl 4 and Korabl 5 respectively).
Space weather. Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the varying conditions within the Solar System and its heliosphere. This includes the effects of the solar wind, especially on the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. [1]