Mars

History:

Since ancient times is Mars, the red planet, closely monitored by humans. His blood-red color made him many civilizations associated with war. Thus, the planet came

also to his name: Mars is the Roman god of war. In the 17th century, astronomers turned their first, self-built telescoopjes on Mars, and discovered they color spots 

that reminded them of the maria on the moon. In the course of time, they also discovered line systems, color changes, the mobile polar caps and clouds. Mars began more 

and more to the imagination.

In 1877, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaperelli published a map of Mars, based on his many years of observations of the planet. Schiaperelli gave the lines that 

he saw the name canali, an Italian word for natural water channels. Due to a translation error, there was the English version of the maps canals, which refers to 

artificial canals (the English word for natural channels is "channels"). This translation error occurs in the American fantasist Percival Lowell, the idea emerged that 

there was a high civilization on Mars, which by means of giant channels trying to irrigate its desert planet with water from the polar caps. The step to Martians has 

put it. Still there are people who believe that Mars once great civilizations have existed, despite an obvious lack of any convincing evidence.

Even when scientists Mars remains a popular planet: after our earth and moon she is the most studied object in the solar system. The conditions on Mars sometimes 

resemble those on Earth. Some scientists even think that there is life on Mars ever created, which has since disappeared. The recent discovery of large amounts of 

water ice and possible liquid surface water on Mars make the planet more interesting. Since the 60s though she is the target vantalloze space missions. Perhaps it will 

not be long before even the first astronauts our neighboring planet visit, the US space agency NASA has had to abandon the ambitious plans of President Reagan, so a 

manned flight is at a standstill the aim , albeit using commercial partners. Other countries such as Russia and ESA investigate long-term stay in space.

Orbit and rotation:

Mars rotates in 687 Earth days to the sun. Mars axis is slightly tilted (23 ° 30 ', similar to the caster of the earth 23 ° 59' is) so the seasons are very similar to 

those of the Earth.

A day on Mars (since the landing of the popular Mars Pathfinder often 'sol' called) takes 24 hours and 37 minutes. That is very similar to the Earth day. All these 

similarities make that future colonists will have it very easy to adapt to the rhythm on Mars.

Origins and evolution:

Mars must have occurred about the same time the earth, and initially had perhaps a more or less similar evolution. The biggest difference is that Mars because they 

only half as large as the earth could cool much faster. That made for a much more limited than volcanism on Earth, and the total absence of plate tectonics, the outer 

layer of Mars is a single plate. Therefore, there are no high mountain ridges, dieptetroggen or volcanic ridges. Where the crust was thin enough to be penetrated by 

magma, emerged very high volcanoes.

Composition:

Like Earth and Mars Venus consists of a crust, a mantle rocks and an iron core. The fact that Mars has only a very weak magnetic field, indicates that this core is 

completely fixed. The little magnetism that space explorers detected is probably a relic from the earliest period of the planet, when that iron core was still liquid. 

Some rocks can indeed retain magnetism.

Surface:

The surface of Mars is quite young: contrary to what had been expected, there are on the planet but find few large impact craters. The southern hemisphere of Mars is 

the oldest (about 3.8 billion years), and consists of heavily cratered mountains, similar to the crater field of the moon. The northern hemisphere consists mainly of 

plains young (younger than 3.5 billion years), intersected by valleys. The region Tharsis region, which is also the volcano Olympus Mons, is not older than 500 million 

years!

The separation between the old and the young southern terrain northern area happens quite abruptly, with a sudden altitude of several kilometers. Possible Mars in its 

early history experienced a severe impact on the northern hemisphere, making it half the planet was largely renovated. Mars Global Surveyor also generated data showing 

that the crust in the northern hemisphere 35 km thick, as opposed to 80 km in the southern hemisphere.

Volcanoes:

One of the most spectacular relief units on Mars is the volcano Olympus Mons, the bigest shield volcano in the solar system: it is 24 km high and has a base diameter 

of 500 km. The volcano is surrounded by a steep cliff 6 km high. Besides Olympus Mons are also in the same area there is Alba Pathera (1500 km wide) and three smaller 

volcanoes Arsia, Pavonis and Ascraeus. There are on Mars prevent two other areas where smaller volcanoes Elysium regioen the Hellas impact basin. 

Because there is no plate tectonics on Mars as on Earth the lava continues to flow through the same place the crust. On Earth, the Earth's crust shifts over time, so 

that the volcanoes are positioned next to each other (eg, the archipelago of Hawaii).

There is evidence that Mars 150 million years ago, a volcanic eruption witnessed; geologically speaking it is very recent, so it is believed that Mars today is still 

volcanically active. However, volcanism is very limited and dormant, and the likelihood that we will soon see an eruption is extremely small.

Valleys:

Another striking element of the Martian geography are the countless valleys especially in the older southern hemisphere to see. Since the photographs of the first 

Mariner scouts is the most accepted hypothesis that these valleys are actually dried out riverbeds. That means there must have once been on Mars large amounts of 

water. For years, scientists have wondered where that water or went there: Today Mars is a dry desert. Measurements have shown that it is probably in the form of 

permafrost is incorporated into the soil on Mars. It would be exceptionally large amounts of water ice that is stored on a few meters depth below the surface.

Vallis Marineris:

The gigantic canyon structure Vallis Marineris, a fault line of 4000 km long, is not caused by water erosion: it is a great crack in the crust caused by stresses due 

to the bulging of the Tharsis plateau on the other side of the planet. That plateau, 10 km higher than the average level Mars, was created by the upwelling of lava 

from the mantle of the planet. Because the crust in that place too thick to break through, the material piled up. On the other side of the planet tore the crust 

thereby open