As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Mars, often referred to as the Red Planet, has captured human curiosity for centuries. With ongoing scientific exploration, many details about this neighboring world have been uncovered. Some of these findings challenge previous assumptions and offer insight into what makes Mars a unique and intriguing part of the solar system.
Mars Has the Tallest Volcano in the Solar System
Olympus Mons, a massive shield volcano on Mars, holds the record for the tallest planetary mountain in the solar system. It rises approximately 13.6 miles (22 kilometers) above the Martian surface, making it nearly three times the height of Mount Everest. The base of Olympus Mons is so large that a person standing on the edge would not be able to see the opposite rim due to the planet’s curvature.
Unlike many volcanoes on Earth, Olympus Mons shows no significant signs of erosion, suggesting that it has experienced relatively little geological change. Its structure also indicates that Mars has a thicker crust in comparison to Earth, which may have contributed to the formation of such an enormous volcanic feature.
The Martian Atmosphere Is Extremely Thin and Lacks Oxygen
While Mars does have an atmosphere, it is about 100 times thinner than Earth’s and is composed mainly of carbon dioxide, with only trace amounts of oxygen. This means that humans would not be able to breathe naturally on the planet, and any future missions would require advanced life support systems.
The thin atmosphere also means that Mars experiences extreme temperature variations. At the equator, temperatures can rise to a comfortable 70°F (20°C) during the daytime, but drop to around -100°F (-73°C) or lower at night. The lack of a dense atmosphere also exposes the planet to high levels of solar radiation, which presents challenges for both robotic and human exploration.
Mars Has the Longest and Deepest Canyon System
Valles Marineris, a massive canyon system on Mars, stretches for roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) across the surface. This makes it one of the largest canyons in the solar system, dwarfing the Grand Canyon in the United States. At certain points, Valles Marineris reaches depths of more than 4 miles (7 kilometers), making it significantly deeper than Earth’s largest canyon formations.
The origins of Valles Marineris are still debated among scientists, but evidence suggests that it may have been formed through a combination of tectonic activity, volcanic processes, and erosion over millions of years. Satellite imagery and topographic data indicate that ancient river channels may have once carried flowing water through the canyon system, adding to the mystery of Mars’ distant past.
Mars Experiences the Largest Dust Storms in the Solar System
The Red Planet is known for its massive dust storms, which can range from small localized events to storms that engulf the entire planet. These storms are driven by Mars’ thin atmosphere and the presence of fine dust particles that are easily lifted by wind. Some of these storms can last for weeks or even months, significantly reducing surface visibility and affecting solar-powered rovers.
Scientists believe that dust storms play a major role in shaping Mars’ surface. The movement of dust particles across the landscape contributes to erosion and the redistribution of materials. Additionally, these storms impact temperature patterns by absorbing and redistributing heat throughout the planet’s atmosphere.
Mars Has Evidence of Ancient Riverbeds and Lakes
Satellite imagery and data collected by rovers strongly suggest that Mars once had flowing water. Dry river channels, lake beds, and mineral deposits associated with liquid water have been identified throughout the planet’s surface. Some of these formations resemble river deltas found on Earth, supporting the idea that Mars may have had a more hospitable environment in the distant past.
Missions such as the Perseverance rover are actively searching for evidence of ancient microbial life by analyzing rock samples in areas that were once submerged in water. The discovery of certain minerals, such as clays and sulfates, further supports the theory that liquid water played a significant role in shaping the Martian landscape.
Mars Has Ice Caps Made of Water and Carbon Dioxide
At both the north and south poles of Mars, large ice caps exist, composed mainly of water ice and frozen carbon dioxide. These caps experience seasonal changes, growing larger in the winter months and shrinking during the summer as temperatures rise. The presence of this ice suggests that Mars holds a significant amount of frozen water beneath its surface.
Radar data from orbiting spacecraft reveal that the ice caps contain enough frozen water to cover the entire planet in a shallow ocean if melted. These deposits could be essential for future human missions, providing a potential water source for drinking and other necessities.
Mars’ Gravity Is Only 38% of Earth’s
Gravity on Mars is significantly weaker than on Earth, measuring only 38% of Earth’s gravitational force. This means that objects and individuals on the planet would weigh much less than they do on Earth. For example, a person weighing 100 pounds on Earth would weigh just 38 pounds on Mars.
The lower gravity presents both opportunities and challenges for future space exploration. While reduced gravity may make certain physical tasks easier, it could also impact human health over long periods, potentially causing muscle and bone loss similar to the effects experienced by astronauts in microgravity environments.
Mars Has Two Small, Irregularly Shaped Moons
Unlike Earth’s large, spherical moon, Mars has two small moons named Phobos and Deimos. These irregularly shaped objects are thought to be captured asteroids or remnants from an ancient collision. Phobos, the larger of the two, orbits very close to Mars and is gradually moving inward, suggesting that it may eventually break apart or collide with the planet.
Deimos, the smaller and more distant moon, has a much more stable orbit. Both moons are heavily cratered and lack significant atmospheres, making them similar in appearance to asteroids found in the outer solar system. Future exploration missions may target these moons as stepping stones for deeper space travel.
The Length of a Martian Day Is Similar to an Earth Day
Mars has a rotational period that is remarkably close to that of Earth. A single Mars day, called a “sol,” lasts approximately 24 hours and 37 minutes. This similarity makes long-term human habitation on Mars more feasible in comparison to other planetary bodies where day-night cycles vary significantly from Earth’s.
Although the length of a Martian day is similar to Earth’s, the length of a Martian year is much longer, lasting roughly 687 Earth days. This is due to Mars’ greater distance from the Sun and its longer orbital path, impacting seasonal changes and overall climate conditions on the planet.
10 Best Selling Books About Mars Exploration
Nonfiction about Mars exploration spans rover engineering, mission operations, planetary science, and the long scientific search for habitability and life on the Red Planet. The selections below focus on widely read, general-audience titles that center on Mars missions, Mars rover fieldwork, and how evidence from orbiters, landers, and rovers reshaped what is known about Mars.
Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet by Steve Squyres
Written by the mission’s principal scientist, this book follows the Mars Exploration Rover program from concept to surface operations, emphasizing how engineering constraints shaped scientific decisions. It explains how Spirit and Opportunity turned rover driving, remote geology, and long-duration fieldwork into a new model for robotic Mars exploration.
Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity’s Chief Engineer by Rob Manning and William L Simon
This insider account explains how Curiosity was designed, tested, and delivered to the Martian surface, with attention to the project decisions that managed risk across launch, cruise, entry, descent, and landing. It connects the rover’s engineering choices to the mission’s science goals, showing how hardware capabilities shaped what Curiosity could measure on Mars.
The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job by Emily Lakdawalla
This book breaks Curiosity into its major subsystems – mobility, power, communications, computing, and instruments – describing how each part supports daily surface operations and science campaigns. It presents the rover as an integrated system, explaining how requirements, constraints, and redundancy combine to keep a long-lived Mars rover productive in a harsh environment.
Sojourner: An Insider’s View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission by Andrew Mishkin
Centered on Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner rover, this narrative shows how a small team executed a high-profile Mars landing and early rover operations under tight budgets and timelines. It highlights the practical realities of mission planning, surface commanding, and troubleshooting when a robot is operating millions of miles away.
Discovering Mars: A History of Observation and Exploration of the Red Planet by William Sheehan and Jim Bell
This history connects early telescopic observations and debates about “canals” to the spacecraft era of orbiters, landers, and rovers, showing how evidence replaced speculation over time. It frames Mars exploration as a cumulative scientific process, where better instruments and better maps steadily reshaped what researchers believed about Martian geology and climate.
The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World by Sarah Stewart Johnson
Blending planetary science with the history of Mars missions, this book traces how ideas about habitability evolved from early flybys to modern rover field science and sample-focused strategies. It explains why the search for life on Mars shifted toward geochemistry, ancient environments, and biosignature reasoning rather than simple “yes/no” experiments.
The Search for Life on Mars: The Greatest Scientific Detective Story of All Time by Elizabeth Howell and Nicholas Booth
This account surveys decades of Mars exploration through the single question of whether Mars ever hosted life, using shifting mission designs and evidence standards as the narrative thread. It emphasizes how modern missions build on Viking-era lessons by targeting ancient environments, organics, and contextual geology rather than relying on one decisive test.
Mars: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet by Paul Raeburn
Designed for nontechnical readers, this book pairs an accessible explanation of Mars science with a mission-focused look at how spacecraft imagery and measurements changed the public’s view of the planet. It situates major discoveries in the context of evolving exploration tools, from orbiters and landers to the systems that enabled detailed surface investigation.
The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must by Robert Zubrin
This book argues for a practical pathway from robotic Mars exploration to human missions, emphasizing architectures that reduce complexity and cost by using local resources and straightforward mission design. It ties the rationale for Mars missions to engineering feasibility, political decision-making, and the long-term scientific value of sustained presence and fieldwork on the surface.
The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars by Simon Morden
This book treats Mars as a changing world, describing how geology, atmosphere, water history, and impacts produced the planet explored by modern spacecraft and rovers. It connects natural history to exploration results, showing how mission data refined ideas about ancient lakes, climate transitions, and where the strongest habitability evidence might be found.
Today’s 10 Most Popular Science Fiction Books
[amazon bestseller=”science fiction books” items=”10″]
