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Fun facts and trivia about the solar system, including the sun, the planets,
and other celestial bodies.
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Mars - The Red Planet
- Mars is known as the Red Planet, because its surface is rich in iron oxide (rust) which has a red appearance. No wonder it was named after the bloody God of War!
- Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. These misshapen lumps of rock are believed to be captured asteroids. Their names mean "Fear" and "Panic".
- Phobos should have both fear and panic; it is not in a stable orbit, and scientists believe it will eventually crash land on the planet's surface
- Meanwhile, if you happen to have a baseball to throw, throw it in one direction on Phobos...you should be able to turn around and catch it when it returns to you - still airborne - after flying all the way around the moon!
- Mars is home to our solar system's largest (known) volcano, Olympus Mons. This monstrosity of a mountain is so large that a visitor standing at the base of the volcano could not see its summit, because the summit is hidden by the curvature of the planet's surface!
- Much science fiction has been written about Mars, including one of my personal favorites: Mars
 , by Ben Bova.
- Early photos of Mars' surface seemed to indicate that there was a rock formation in the shape of a man's face, which has produced all sorts of flights-of-fancy. More recent, high resolution photos, however, show that the rock does not, in fact, closely resemble anything at all!
- In Antartica, a meteorite was discovered which, based on its mineral composition appears to have arrived all the way from Mars. Imagine that! A Martian rock crash landed on Earth!
"The Solar System" is written by Douglas Twitchell, and hosted at The Problem Site.
Contents copyright 2009 by Douglas Twitchell. Contents of this page may not be reproduced without permission of the author. For information on using
this site in a classroom situation, please visit the Teachers page.
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