Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, known as the Red Planet because its surface is covered in iron oxide, which is rust. On Mars, however, sunsets are blue. Fine dust in the thin Martian air lets blue light pass more easily near the Sun's direction, so the sky around the setting Sun glows blue.^[1] Mars is the only planet that is red all day and changes its mind in the evening.

Olympus Mons

Mars has the tallest volcano known in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, which rises about 22 kilometres above the surrounding plains, roughly two and a half times the height of Mount Everest. It is so wide and its slopes so gentle that someone standing on it would not be able to see the summit, and might not notice they were on a volcano at all.^[2] It is the only mountain too large to be seen from the mountain.

Days

A day on Mars, called a sol, lasts about 24 hours and 37 minutes, only slightly longer than an Earth day. Mission teams working on Mars time have to shift their schedules about forty minutes later every day, which they report is a little like being permanently jet-lagged on a planet you have never been to.

Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, named after the Greek words for fear and dread. They are roughly potato-shaped, which takes some of the edge off.

See also

• Red – its colour by day
• Blue – its colour at sunset
• Volcano – which it has the biggest of
• War of the Worlds broadcast – where the visitors were from, in the story

References

1. Rust, R. (2005). Red, Then Blue. Dust Press.
2. Summit, S. (1997). “Where Is the Top?” Planetary Geology 22: 1.
3. Sol, S. (2012). Forty Minutes Late, Every Day. Rover Books.