It’s when children are 15, 16 or 17 that they decide whether they want to be a doctor, an engineer, a politician or go to the Mars or moon. That is the time they start having a dream, and that’s the time you can work on them. You can help them shape their dreams.
By:- Dr. APJ ABDUL KALAM( FORMER PRESIDENT OF INDIA AND A VERY FAMOUS SCIENTIST.
An amazing quote by a world famous scientist. We all dreamt of going to moon when we first read about Neil Armstrong taking the first step on moon. Later few missions were conducted for man to go on moon. But that was the only manned mission to any planetary body in our solar system. We have satellites on comet, a satellite which went by Pluto but we humans haven’t gone beyond moon. But it’s not far that we will be going on mars. It is just few experiments on human body that has to be worked out. Living in space for long duration is no easy job. Though first in history NASA’s Scott Kelly was aboard the International Space Station( ISS) for one long year. Longest by anyone. But a lot needs to be done. So let us come back to mars.
Mars is the fourth planet in the solar system and smallest after mercury. It is the last planet in the inner planet circle. Beyond mars are all massive gaseous planets. So let us see about the amazing mars.
It is planet where average temperature lies around -80 degree C. It is much below the freezing point. It’s surface is mainly composed of iron and nickel and due to this its surface is reddish in colour thereby giving it a nick name of ‘ Red Planet’. It has mainly famous for having the highest mountain in solar system. Mt. Olympus is the mountain which has a height of astonishing 25 km! Almost 3 times the height of Mt. Everest. It even have huge canyons. This world is somewhat surprising and similar to that of earth. Surprising because it has some spectacular geographical terrains. It is similar to earth in two ways:
- It has polar caps like on earth.
- Time taken to complete one day on mars is 24 hours and 40 min.
Coming to the first point. Yes, mars have polar caps and that is the main reason that has led astronomers predict that water existed on mars sometime in its history. It was proved right when last year, traces of flowing water and hydrated salts was found. Presence of hydrated salts thereby proves that water existed. So if water existed then what about life? Though not complex as us but some microorganisms because basically water is the main ingredient of any form of life. So that research of finding life is still going on by NASA’s satellites.
Mars has two moons namely Phobos and Deimos. It is predicted that these moons will break apart due the gravity of mars and form ring like structures around it.
And yes ISRO’S MOM( MARS ORBITOR MISSION) became the first satellite in Asia to reach Mars in one go. It was India’s first interplanetary mission. ISRO was successful in sending rovers to moon. Now, rover is a robot which lives on a planet by its own and does all jobs like taking photos( selfies too!), taking data, digging into soil( rover did without permission on mars, maybe of Martians).
Through naked eyes it appears reddish though it’s brightness can be outshined by Jupiter and Venus. But don’t worry Mars will be in opposition with the sun. That is earth, mars and sun will align in one line.
astronomy53 
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