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Mars facts:
- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun.
- It is named after the Roman god of war.
- Mars is a terrestrial planet which means that, like Earth, it has a solid surface. You can easily see it from Earth and it looks red because of the iron oxide on the surface. It appears to have lots of frozen water at both poles but because the planet has so little atmosphere, water can’t stay liquid. Long ago there probably was liquid water on the planet’s surface because we can see the traces it left. We can also see volcanoes but they are not currently active.
- Mars has two moons called Phobos and Deimos.
- Mars orbits the Sun at an average distance of 228 million km, half as far again as the Earth, so human visitors would find it very cold. Although summers near the equator can be quite warm, the average temperature is 63 degrees Celsius below zero — similar to winters in Antarctica. The nights are also bitterly cold.
- The first humans on Mars will have other problems to face. The air is 100 times thinner than on Earth and is mostly made up of carbon dioxide. Human explorers will have to wear oxygen masks and special suits every time they step outside their sealed homes.
- Violent storms can whip up clouds of dust. Sometimes these spread rapidly around the entire planet, hiding the surface from view.
This image of what war might appear like on the fourth planet was created by the author in the style of film director and illustrator extraordinaire Seb McKinnon.
When the time comes that I “hack” my way back into my OpenSea account, it will be listed there for a nominal amount of ETH.
