Mars Has The Largest Mountain In The Solar System

Fact of the day: Mars has the largest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons at around 22,000 metres.


(above) Mars.

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, at 1.524 astronomical units ( 227.9 million km) away from the sun. Mars has a diameter that is just over half that of earths.
Mars is known for its red appearance (hence the fact that it is occasionally called 'the red planet'), and that it has a potential to harbour life.
Mars's suface is very dry and rocky. The surface is coated in dust and sand, and large rocks. The geology of the landscape suggests that water used to exist on its surface, such as the (extremely) large  valles marineris which could only have been formed by water erosion. The atmospheric pressure does not allow liquid water to exist of the surface of mars.


(above) Mars's landscape taken from NASA's curiosity rover.

It is also suggested that mars also had an extensive atmosphere, but due to its weak gravitational pull, was not able to keep it as it was torn from the planet by the solar wind.

A year on Mars takes 687 Earth days, and it takes 24 Earth hours and 39 Earth minutes to rotate once on its axis.

Images from NASA,  https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

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