MARS

MARS

     Mars is the fourth planet in the Solar System from the Sun. It is named after Mars, the god of war in Roman mythology. It is also called the "Red Planet" because it has a reddish appearance due to the common iron oxide on its surface.

       Mount Olympus (Olympus Mons) on Mars is the tallest known mountain in the Solar System, and the canyon called Marineris Valley (Valles Marineris) is the largest canyon.Mount Olympus, three times the height of Everest, is a gently sloping extinct volcano in the mountainous Tharsis region, which contains many large volcanoes. Mars is also a planet where impact craters have been observed; radius 5 km. and the total number of these crater formations, which could be larger, was set at 43,000.

          The famous grand canyon called Valles Marineris is 4,000 km long and 200 km wide and has a depth of up to 7 km. In other words, its length is equal to the length of Europe, and it is one fifth of the circumference of the planet. In order to understand the gigantic dimensions of its size, the dimensions of the Grand Canyon on Earth can be considered. (The Grand Canyon is 446 km long and about 2 km deep.) Another large canyon, the Ma'adim Vallis, is 700 km long, 20 km wide and 2 km deep in places. It is believed that this canyon was formed by a liquid flood in the past.

      Mars, which has a thin atmosphere, is an earth-like planet with its meteor craters like the Moon and its face, which includes volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar regions like the Earth. In addition, the rotation period and seasonal periods are very similar to those of the .Mars has two irregularly shaped small moons named Phobos and Deimos, discovered by astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877.

      The movements of Phobos and Deimos appear very different from the surface of Mars compared to the appearance of our görünüş moon from Earth. Phobos is born every 11 hours from the west. Deimos, on the other hand, is born every 2.7 days, with 30 hours of rotation. Both satellites follow circular orbits close to the equator.

        Mars can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.Although the atmosphere of Mars consists of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen and 1.6% argon, it also carries traces of oxygen and water. [67] Its atmosphere, containing dust particles with a radius of 1.5 µm, is completely dusty, causing the Martian sky to appear a pale orange-brownish color when viewed from the Martian surface.

    The radius of Mars is about half that of the Earth.Mars' north pole circle is called Planum Boreum and the south pole circle is called Planum Australe.

        In the polar regions, there is a constant darkness in winter and a freezing cold on the surface, causing around 25–30% of the atmosphere to condense and the carbon dioxide to solidify into what is called "dry ice." When the poles begin to be exposed to sunlight again after the winter season passes, the frozen carbon dioxide begins to fly, creating awesome winds of up to 400 km per hour. These seasonal changes carry large amounts of dust and water vapor and cause the formation of frost and "circus clouds" (fringe clouds) similar to those on Earth. Water-ice clouds were photographed by Opportunity in 2004.

    Among the planets, the planet whose seasons are most similar to those of Earth is Mars, as the inclination of its rotation axis to orbit is similar to that of the Earth. However, the duration of the Martian seasons is twice that of the Earth because the planet is farther from the Sun, and the duration of the "Mars year" is two Earth years. The surface temperatures of Mars range from-140 ° C (133 K) during the polar winter to 20 ° C (293 K) during the summer. The difference in temperature is due to reasons such as the thin atmosphere's inability to store the Sun's heat sufficiently, the low atmospheric pressure and the low thermal inertia of the soil.

The average distance of Mars from the Sun is approximately 230,000,000 km, and its orbit is 687 Earth days.

       Mars day is slightly longer than Earth day, exactly 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35,244 seconds. A Martian year is 1.8809 Earth years, that is exactly 1 year, 320 days, and 18.2 hours in Earth time units.

The axis tilt of Mars is very close to the axis tilt of the Earth, and it is 25.19 degrees. Therefore, seasons reminiscent of those on Earth occur on Mars. However, the duration of the Martian seasons is twice the duration of the Earth seasons, due to the length of the orbital period of Mars.

     The fact that the orbit of Mars is half an astronomical unit away from this suitable belt in which Earth is located causes the water to freeze on the surface of this planet with a thin atmosphere. However, liquid water flows in the planet's past reveal that Mars has habitability potential. According to the data, the waters on the Martian surface are much saltier and much more acidic than necessary for life.

      The absence of the planet's magnetosphere and its extremely thin atmosphere is a great handicap. Heat transfer on the surface is not very large, almost no defense against meteorites and solar winds, and there is insufficient atmospheric pressure to keep the water liquid.

How habitable is Mars?

• Mars is the most habitable planet in our solar system after Earth. There are several reasons for this.
• The soil contains water to be extracted. It's not too cold or too hot.
• There is enough sunlight to use the solar panels.
• The gravity on Mars is 38 percent of our Earth. According to scientists, this ratio is sufficient for the human body to adapt.
• Even though it is thin, it has an atmosphere that provides protection from cosmic rays and solar radiation.
• The day and night rhythm is very similar to that on Earth: Martian day 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds.

Latest news on Mars

       According to the statement made by the Chinese National Space Administration, the Tienvin-1 reconnaissance vehicle sent two photos to Earth, which it took from a distance of about 11 thousand kilometers from Mars.

      In the statement, it was noted that the photo showing the Southern Hemisphere was taken on March 16, and the photo showing the Northern Hemisphere was taken on March 18.

      The sun's rays falling on Mars in the photographs make the planet appear as a crescent. Tienvın-1, which left the Earth on 23 July 2020, made 202 days of flight until it entered Mars orbit, and the vehicle, which made orbit correction 4 times during this period, traveled 475 million kilometers. 

The mission of "Tienvin", which means "to seek the truth in the heavens" in Chinese, takes its name from the lines of the Chinese poet Zhu Yuen, who lived in the 4th century BC.

Mars missions

Humans have begun exploring Mars with robotic devices since the 1960s. Since then, 7 countries (USA, Russia, China, Japan, Britain, India, United Arab Emirates) and European Union joint missions have tried 49 missions for the Red Planet.

        These missions; It involved different tasks, such as flying around the planet, landing on the Martian surface, and moving around the face

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      The last successful mission was the Perseverance vehicle that landed on Mars. The vehicle landed on February 18, 2020 and shared the first photos from Mars.

    The Perseverance traveler will try to find the traces of these periods by researching the past of the Red Planet.

     In particular, it will be looked at whether rocks formed in water or modified by water contain organic molecules, which are carbon-based chemical building blocks.

      Also, the ability to generate oxygen from Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere will be tested to support future human missions.

      There is also a teammate to accompany Perseverance on Mars. The Ingenuity helicopter will try to fly and explore Mars.

       Helicopters will also have the advantage of being able to fly over dangerous terrain such as steep hills or craters that mobile robots cannot reach.