-To find Mars in the sky, look west or northwest in the sky, to the upper left of Venus.
-Mars is very cold, very dusty, and has a thin atmosphere that is saturated with carbon dioxide gas.
-Mars used to be Earthlike; there are traces of water that existed there long ago, and there is a possibility that life existed on Mars and exists there today.
-This planet revolves around the sun once every 687 Earth days.
-A martian day lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds.
-The average surface temperature is -64 degrees Fahrenheit (-53 deg. Celsius).
-Mars is about half the size of Earth, but twice the size of Earth's moon.
-The gravity on Mars is only 38% as strong as Earth's.
-Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos.
Astronomical Units (AU's) times 93,000,000 = Distance; so:
1.38 AU's x 93,000,000 = 128,340,000 miles from Earth to Mars.
Light Speed (186,000 miles per second) -
128,340,000 divided by 186,000 divided
by 60 = 11.5 seconds!
Space Shuttle Speed (20,000 mph) - 128,340,000 divided by 20,000 = 6417 hours from Earth to Mars/or about 267 days!
Highway Speed (65 mph) - 128,340,000 divided by 65 = 1,974,462 hours/225 years!
www.athena.cornwell.edu
www.amastro.org
www.nasa.gov
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