Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in our solar system. It is named after Mars, the Roman god of war (Ares in Greek mythology). Its name was chosen because of its red color, a feature that also earned it the nickname "The Red Planet". Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, both are small and oddly-shaped, each possibly being captured asteroids. The prefix areo- refers to Mars in the same way geo- refers to Earth—for example, areology versus geology. (Areology is also used to refer to the study of Mars as a whole rather than ju ...

Including:

Mars - Mythology Mars - Physical characteristics
Mars - Atmosphere Mars - Geology Mars - Topography Mars - Canals Mars - Ice patches
Mars - The moons of Mars Mars - The exploration of Mars Mars - Nomenclature
Mars - Early nomenclature Mars - Modern nomenclature
Mars - Observation of Mars Mars - Appearance Mars - Martian meteorites Mars - Life on Mars Mars - The Mars flag Mars - Mars in fiction

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Mars, Mars - Mythology, Mars - Physical characteristics, Mars - Atmosphere, Mars - Geology, Mars - Topography, Mars - Canals, Mars - Ice patches, Mars - The moons of Mars, Mars - The exploration of Mars, Mars - Nomenclature, Mars - Early nomenclature, Mars - Modern nomenclature, Mars - Observation of Mars, Mars - Appearance, Mars - Martian meteorites, Mars - Life on Mars, Mars - The Mars flag, Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia II - Mars - Physical characteristics

The red, fiery appearance of Mars is caused by iron oxide (rust) on its surface. Mars has only a quarter the surface area of the Earth and only one-tenth the mass, though its surface area is approximately equal to that of the Earth's dry land because Mars lacks oceans. The solar day (or sol) on Mars is very close to Earth's day: 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds. Mars - Atmosphere. Mars' atmosphere is thin: the air pressure on the surface is only 750 pascals, about 0.75% of the average on Ear ...

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Mars, Mars - Mythology, Mars - Physical characteristics, Mars - Atmosphere, Mars - Geology, Mars - Topography, Mars - Canals, Mars - Ice patches, Mars - The moons of Mars, Mars - The exploration of Mars, Mars - Nomenclature, Mars - Early nomenclature, Mars - Modern nomenclature, Mars - Observation of Mars, Mars - Martian meteorites, Mars - Life on Mars, Mars - The Mars flag, Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia II - Mars - Physical characteristics

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in our solar system. It is named after Mars, the Roman god of war (Ares in Greek mythology). Its name was chosen because of its red color, a feature that also earned it the nickname "The Red Planet". Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, both are small and oddly-shaped, each possibly being captured asteroids. The prefix areo- refers to Mars in the same way geo- refers to Earth—for example, areology versus geology. (Areology is also used to refer to the study of Mars as a whole rather than ju ...

Including:

Mars - Mythology Mars - Physical characteristics
Mars - Geology Mars - Topography Mars - Canals Mars - Ice patches
Mars - The moons of Mars Mars - The exploration of Mars Mars - Nomenclature
Mars - Early nomenclature Mars - Modern nomenclature
Mars - Observation of Mars Mars - Appearance Mars - Martian meteorites Mars - Life on Mars Mars - The Mars flag Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia - Mars

The asteroid 433 Eros (eer'-os) was named after the Greek god of love Eros. It is an S-type asteroid approximately 13 × 13 × 33 km in size, the second-largest near-Earth asteroid. It is also a Mars-crosser asteroid. Eros was visited by the NEAR Shoemaker probe, which orbited it, taking extensive photographs of its surface, and then, on February 12, 2001 at the end of its mission, landed on the asteroid's surface using only its maneuvering jets. 433 Eros - Physical characteristics. Surface gr ...

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433 Eros - Physical characteristics 433 Eros - Legal controversy 433 Eros - Aspects 433 Eros - Eros in fiction

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The first episode of the computer and video game Doom takes place in a UAC base on Phobos. Phobos also featured in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy as having a base built by the first colonists to Mars. Later the moon is overtaken by multinational forces and is de-orbitted by the Martian rebels. ...

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Phobos moon, Phobos moon - Discovery, Phobos moon - Orbital characteristics, Phobos moon - Physical characteristics, Phobos moon - Origin, Phobos moon - Hollow Phobos claims, Phobos moon - Jonathan Swift's 'prediction', Phobos moon - Phobos in fiction

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Phobos orbits Mars below the synchronous orbit radius, meaning that it moves around Mars faster than Mars itself rotates. Therefore it rises in the west, moves comparatively rapidly across the sky (in 4 h 15 min or less) and sets in the east, approximately twice a day (every 11 h 6 min). It is so close to the surface (in a low-inclination equatorial orbit) that it cannot be seen above the horizon from latitudes greater than 70.4°. This low orbit means that Phobos will eventually be destroyed: tidal forces are lowering its orbit, curr ...

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Phobos moon, Phobos moon - Discovery, Phobos moon - Orbital characteristics, Phobos moon - Physical characteristics, Phobos moon - Origin, Phobos moon - Hollow Phobos claims, Phobos moon - Jonathan Swift's 'prediction', Phobos moon - Phobos in fiction

Read more here: » Phobos moon: Encyclopedia II - Phobos moon - Orbital characteristics

Phobos was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall on August 18, 1877 at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C at about 09:14 GMT (contemporary sources, using the pre-1925 astronomical convention that began the day at noon, give the time of discovery as August 17 16:06 Washington mean time). [1]. Asaph Hall also discovered Deimos, Mars' other moon. The notebook of the discovery of Phobos by Asaph Hall is as follows: "I repeated the examination in the early part of the night of [August] 11th, and again found ...

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Phobos moon, Phobos moon - Discovery, Phobos moon - Orbital characteristics, Phobos moon - Physical characteristics, Phobos moon - Origin, Phobos moon - Hollow Phobos claims, Phobos moon - Jonathan Swift's 'prediction', Phobos moon - Phobos in fiction

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Phobos is a dark body that appears to be composed of C-type surface materials. It is similar to the C-type (blackish carbonaceous chondrite) asteroids that exist in the outer asteroid belt. Phobos's density is too low to be pure rock, however, and it is probably composed of a mixture of rock and ice. The Soviet spacecraft Phobos 2 detected a faint but steady outgassing from Phobos. Unfortunately Phobos 2 failed before it could determine the nature of the material, but it is most likely water. Recent images from Mars Global Surveyor indicates that Phobos is covered with a layer of fine dust about a m ...

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Phobos moon, Phobos moon - Discovery, Phobos moon - Orbital characteristics, Phobos moon - Physical characteristics, Phobos moon - Origin, Phobos moon - Hollow Phobos claims, Phobos moon - Jonathan Swift's 'prediction', Phobos moon - Phobos in fiction

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Around 1958, the distinguished Russian astrophysicist Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky, studying the secular acceleration of Phobos' orbital motion, suggested a "thin sheet metal" structure for Phobos, a suggestion which led to speculations on Phobos' artificial origin. Shklovsky based his analysis on estimates of the upper martian atmosphere's density, and deduced that for the weak braking effect to be able to account for the secular acceleration, Phobos had to be very light —one calculation yielded a hollo ...

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Phobos moon, Phobos moon - Discovery, Phobos moon - Orbital characteristics, Phobos moon - Physical characteristics, Phobos moon - Origin, Phobos moon - Hollow Phobos claims, Phobos moon - Jonathan Swift's 'prediction', Phobos moon - Phobos in fiction

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The V-type asteroid 1929 Kollaa was determined to have a composition akin to cumulate eucrite meteorites, indicating its origin deep within the Vestian crust [12]. Vesta is currently one of only four identified Solar system bodies for which we have physical samples, the others being Mars, the Moon, and Earth itself. Our knowledge about Vesta is expected to increase tremendously when the Dawn probe enters orbit around the asteroid for nine months in 2010-2011.< ...

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4 Vesta, 4 Vesta - Discovery, 4 Vesta - Physical characteristics, 4 Vesta - Geology, 4 Vesta - Surface features, 4 Vesta - Further details, 4 Vesta - Aspects

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Ceres is the largest known asteroid in the asteroid belt, which mostly lies between Mars and Jupiter. However the Kuiper belt is known to contain larger objects, including Pluto, 50000 Quaoar, 90482 Orcus, the recently discovered 2003 UB313, and possibly 90377 Sedna. At certain points in its orbit, Ceres can reach a magnitude of 7.0. This is generally regarded as being just barely too dim to be seen with the naked eye, but under exceptional viewing conditions a very sharp-sighted person may be able to see the asteroid with the naked eye. The only other aste ...

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1 Ceres, 1 Ceres - Name, 1 Ceres - Discovery, 1 Ceres - Physical characteristics, 1 Ceres - Observations, 1 Ceres - Trivia, 1 Ceres - Aspects, 1 Ceres - External link

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Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system, even redder than the planet Mars. The reddish color is apparently due to sulfur originating from Io. Bright patches of green appear on the major slopes of Amalthea, but the nature of this color is currently unknown. Amalthea is irregularly shaped, with dimensions of 270 × 168 × 150 km; the long axis is oriented toward Jupiter. It is also heavily scarred by craters, some of which are extremely large relative to the size of the moon. Pan, the largest crater, measures 100 kilometers a ...

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Amalthea moon, Amalthea moon - Physical characteristics, Amalthea moon - The view from the surface, Amalthea moon - Amalthea in fiction

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Planet Usually refers to the visible satellites of our sun, though in its general sense including the planets belonging to other solar systems, and planets belonging to the universal solar system, whether visible or not on our plane.

One particular meaning is that of the seven sacred planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and two secret planets for which the Sun and Moon are substituted exoterically. Uranus and Neptune do not belong to this group, although circulating around our Sun; Neptune while belonging to our universal solar system does not cosmogonically belong to our own minor solar system, and hence is what from our standpoint may be called a capture.

Each planet, like all other celestial orbs, is composed of seven or twelve globes, in coadunation but not in consubstantiality, forming a planetary chain on the various cosmic planes, only those on our particular physical plane being visible to us. Planets are the outer shell of living beings and have evolved from cosmic seeds, passing through various stages including that of comets. They are inhabited by denizens adapted to their conditions.

 Each planet of the solar system is in its own particular stage of planetary evolution, one planet being in one round of its own evolutionary course, another in a different round of its evolutionary development; and the substances or matters composing them are in respectively different states of materiality, ethereality, or spirituality.

The periods of the planetary movements and of their nodes and apses are regulated by mathematical law originally impressed not only in the structure of the solar system, but in the svabhava or characteristic nature of each individual planet in the system, and these periods mark innumerable cycles of time, great and small. They shed influence on the earth and its inhabitants both as time indicators and by virtue of their quality as living beings. Each celestial body is the mansion, vehicle, or house of what is in its essence a divine entity; and these regents or governors, each one of its own sun or planet, are themselves undergoing courses of evolutionary unfolding in time periods so vast that mathematics of cosmic extent are required to compass them.

(See also: Planet, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Dozens of spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been sent to Mars by the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe, and Japan to study the planet's surface, climate, and geography. Roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars have failed in one manner or another before completing or even beginning their missions. Part of this high failure rate can be ascribed to technical problems, but enough have either failed or lost communications for no apparent reason that some researchers half-jokingly speak of an Earth-Mars ...

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Mars, Mars - Mythology, Mars - Physical characteristics, Mars - Atmosphere, Mars - Geology, Mars - Topography, Mars - Canals, Mars - Ice patches, Mars - The moons of Mars, Mars - The exploration of Mars, Mars - Nomenclature, Mars - Early nomenclature, Mars - Modern nomenclature, Mars - Observation of Mars, Mars - Appearance, Mars - Martian meteorites, Mars - Life on Mars, Mars - The Mars flag, Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia II - Mars - The exploration of Mars

Mars - Early nomenclature. Although better remembered for mapping the Moon starting in 1830, Johann Heinrich Mädler and Wilhelm Beer were the first "areographers". They started off by establishing once and for all that most of the surface features were permanent, and pinned down Mars' rotation period. In 1840, Mädler combined ten years of observations and drew the first map of Mars ever made. Rather than giving names to the various markings they mapped, Beer and Mädler simply designated them with letters; Meridian Bay (S ...

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Mars, Mars - Mythology, Mars - Physical characteristics, Mars - Atmosphere, Mars - Geology, Mars - Topography, Mars - Canals, Mars - Ice patches, Mars - The moons of Mars, Mars - The exploration of Mars, Mars - Nomenclature, Mars - Early nomenclature, Mars - Modern nomenclature, Mars - Observation of Mars, Mars - Appearance, Mars - Martian meteorites, Mars - Life on Mars, Mars - The Mars flag, Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia II - Mars - Nomenclature

The depiction of Mars in fiction has been stimulated its dramatic red color and by early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life. Until the arrival of planetary probes, the traditional view of Mars derived from the astronomers Percival Lowell and Giovanni Schiaparelli, whose observation of supposedly linear features on the planet created the myth of canals on Mars. For many years, a standard notion of the planet as a drying, cooling, dying world with ancient civilizations constructing ir ...

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Mars, Mars - Mythology, Mars - Physical characteristics, Mars - Atmosphere, Mars - Geology, Mars - Topography, Mars - Canals, Mars - Ice patches, Mars - The moons of Mars, Mars - The exploration of Mars, Mars - Nomenclature, Mars - Early nomenclature, Mars - Modern nomenclature, Mars - Observation of Mars, Mars - Appearance, Mars - Martian meteorites, Mars - Life on Mars, Mars - The Mars flag, Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia II - Mars - Mars in fiction

Earth passes Mars every 780 days (or two years plus seven weeks and one day) at a distance of about 80,000,000 km. However, this varies because the orbits are elliptical. To a naked-eye observer, Mars usually shows a distinct yellow, orange or reddish colour, and varies in brightness more than any other planet as seen from Earth over the course of its orbit, due to the fact that when furthest away from the Earth it is more than seven times as far from the latter as when it is closest (and can be lost in the Sun's glare for months at a time w ...

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Mars, Mars - Mythology, Mars - Physical characteristics, Mars - Atmosphere, Mars - Geology, Mars - Topography, Mars - Canals, Mars - Ice patches, Mars - The moons of Mars, Mars - The exploration of Mars, Mars - Nomenclature, Mars - Early nomenclature, Mars - Modern nomenclature, Mars - Observation of Mars, Mars - Appearance, Mars - Martian meteorites, Mars - Life on Mars, Mars - The Mars flag, Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia II - Mars - Observation of Mars

A handful of objects are known that are surely meteorites and may be of Martian origin. Two of them may show signs of ancient bacterial activity. On August 6, 1996 NASA announced that analysis of the ALH 84001 meteorite thought to have come from Mars, shows some features that may be fossils of single-celled organisms, although this idea is controversial. In Solar System Research (March 2004, vol 38, page 97) it was suggested tha ...

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Mars, Mars - Mythology, Mars - Physical characteristics, Mars - Atmosphere, Mars - Geology, Mars - Topography, Mars - Canals, Mars - Ice patches, Mars - The moons of Mars, Mars - The exploration of Mars, Mars - Nomenclature, Mars - Early nomenclature, Mars - Modern nomenclature, Mars - Observation of Mars, Mars - Appearance, Mars - Martian meteorites, Mars - Life on Mars, Mars - The Mars flag, Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia II - Mars - Martian meteorites

Some evidence suggests that the planet once was significantly more habitable than today, but the question on whether living organisms ever actually existed there is an open one. Some researchers think that a certain rock which is believed to have originated on Mars - specifically, meteorite ALH84001 - does contain evidence of past biologic activity, but no consensus about these claims has been achieved so far and recent research indicates that the rock, since its creation several billion years ago, has never b ...

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Mars, Mars - Mythology, Mars - Physical characteristics, Mars - Atmosphere, Mars - Geology, Mars - Topography, Mars - Canals, Mars - Ice patches, Mars - The moons of Mars, Mars - The exploration of Mars, Mars - Nomenclature, Mars - Early nomenclature, Mars - Modern nomenclature, Mars - Observation of Mars, Mars - Appearance, Mars - Martian meteorites, Mars - Life on Mars, Mars - The Mars flag, Mars - Mars in fiction

Read more here: » Mars: Encyclopedia II - Mars - Life on Mars