Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, being larger than only Mercury. In English, Mars carries the name of the Roman god of war and is often referred to as the "Red Planet". The latter refers to the effect of the iron oxide prevalent on Mars's surface, which gives it a reddish appearance distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, with surface features reminiscent of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth.
Introduction
Mars
Mars | Introduction
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what is the location of mars in the solar system
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Mars is a planet in the Solar System. Mars also commonly refers to: Mars may also refer to:
Mars (disambiguation) | Introduction
The location is an ideal site for studying the timing and evolution of the surface processes of Mars, such as huge impact basin formation, fluvial activity (valley networks, small outflow channels), groundwater activity, history of glaciation, and volcanic activity.
Northeast Syrtis | Introduction
The days and seasons are comparable to those of Earth, because the rotational period as well as the tilt of the rotational axis relative to the ecliptic plane are similar. Mars is the site of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System. The smooth Borealis basin in the northern hemisphere covers 40% of the planet and may be a giant impact feature. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped. These may be captured asteroids, similar to 5261 Eureka, a Mars trojan.
Mars | Introduction
For some time, scientists have thought that the location of the poles of Mars have shifted due to the great mass of volcanic material in the Tharsis dome which includes Olympus Mons, the highest volcano in the solar system. A study published in "Nature" supports this idea. For a period early in the history of Mars, the poles were about 20 degrees away from their present positions. At that time ice was deposited in a region called Dorsa Argentea Formation. Also, the Martian dichotomy was aligned along the equator. A band of rivers formed at around 25 degrees south carried water from the southern highlands to the northern lowlands.
True polar wander on Mars | Introduction
It is located 10 km from Tolbazy, 4 km from Novy Kalchir.
Mars, Aurgazinsky District, Republic of Bashkortostan | Geography
Mars (1.5 AU from the Sun) is smaller than Earth and Venus (). It has an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide with a surface pressure of 6.1 millibars (roughly 0.6% of that of Earth). Its surface, peppered with vast volcanoes, such as Olympus Mons, and rift valleys, such as Valles Marineris, shows geological activity that may have persisted until as recently as 2 million years ago. Its red colour comes from iron oxide (rust) in its soil. Mars has two tiny natural satellites (Deimos and Phobos) thought to be either captured asteroids, or ejected debris from a massive impact early in Mars's history.
Solar System | Mars
These maps are now available online at http://www.google.com/mars/
Geography of Mars | History
See list of craters on Mars. Mars has two permanent polar ice caps, the northern one located at Planum Boreum and the southern one at Planum Australe.
Geography of Mars | Topography
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Mars: Mars – fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Named after the Roman god of war, it is often referred to as the "Red Planet" because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
Outline of Mars | Introduction
The Valley of Dor, with the ring of cliffs around it and Sea of Korus within it, is placed in a mile-deep crater at Mars' South Pole. However, Burroughs makes a mistake in that he has the sun rise in the east and set in the west as elsewhere in the planet, and the moons are visible from the Valley. In reality, at the South Pole, Mars' moons would not be seen, and the sun would not rise in the east and set in the west (all directions away from the Pole are "north" in any case), but instead ring the cliffs for half the Martian year, and leave the area shrouded in darkness for the other half of the Martian year.
The Gods of Mars | Scientific basis
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, being larger than only Mercury. In English, Mars carries the name of the Roman god of war and is often referred to as the "Red Planet". The latter refers to the effect of the iron oxide prevalent on Mars's surface, which gives it a reddish appearance distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, with surface features reminiscent of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth.
Mars | Introduction
South is an impact crater in the Mare Australe quadrangle of Mars, located at 76.9°S latitude and 21.9°E longitude. It measures 101.84 kilometers in diameter and was named after British astronomer Sir James South (1785–1867). The name was approved in 1973, by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.
South (Martian crater) | Introduction
It is located 31 km from Kushnarenkovo, 8 km from Ilikovo.
Mars, Kushnarenkovsky District, Republic of Bashkortostan | Geography
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) is a commercial space launch facility located at the southern tip of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and south of Chincoteague, Virginia, United States.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport | Introduction
Mars analogs are sometimes chosen for their location, for example, Devon Island is at 75°N latitude which provides solar radiance similar to the Martian Equator. Similarly, high altitudes can provide an equivalent to the low pressure of the Mars atmosphere
List of Mars analogs | Introduction
Copernicus is a large crater on Mars, with a diameter close to 300 km. It is located south of the planet's equator in the heavily cratered highlands of Terra Sirenum in the Phaethontis quadrangle at 48.8°S and 191.2°E. Its name was approved in 1973, and it was named after Nicolaus Copernicus.
Copernicus (Martian crater) | Introduction
Mars has many distinctive chemical features caused by its position in the Solar System. Elements with comparatively low boiling points, such as chlorine, phosphorus, and sulphur, are much more common on Mars than Earth; these elements were probably pushed outward by the young Sun's energetic solar wind.
Mars | Surface geology
As "InSight" science goals are not related to any particular surface feature of Mars, potential landing sites were chosen on the basis of practicality. Candidate sites needed to be near the equator of Mars to provide sufficient sunlight for the solar panels year round, have a low elevation to allow for sufficient atmospheric braking during EDL, be flat and relatively rock-free to reduce the probability of complications during landing, and have soft enough terrain to allow the heat flow probe to penetrate well into the ground. An optimal area that meets all these requirements is Elysium Planitia, so all 22 initial potential landing sites were located in this area.
InSight | Landing site
Very is a crater on Mars, located south of the planet's equator in the heavily cratered highlands of Terra Sirenum in the Phaethontis quadrangle at 49.2°S and 177.1°W. It measures approximately 115 kilometers in diameter. The crater was named after American astronomer Frank Washington Very.
Very (Martian crater) | Introduction
The largest dark feature seen from Earth is Syrtis Major Planum. The shield volcano, Olympus Mons ("Mount Olympus"), rises 22 km above the surrounding volcanic plains, and is the highest known mountain on any planet in the solar system. It is in a vast upland region called Tharsis, which contains several large volcanos. See list of mountains on Mars. The Tharsis region of Mars also has the solar system's largest canyon system, Valles Marineris or the "Mariner Valley", which is 4,000 km long and 7 km deep. Mars is also scarred by countless impact craters. The largest of these is the Hellas impact basin.
Geography of Mars | Topography
Dawes Crater is located in the Sinus Sabaeus quadrangle of Mars, at 9.2 S and 38 E. It is about in diameter, and was named after William R. Dawes, a British astronomer (1799–1868) who was ahead of his time in believing that Mars only had a thin atmosphere. Dawes presumed that the atmosphere of Mars was thin because surface markings on the planet could easily be seen.
Dawes (Martian crater) | Introduction
Mars has long been the subject of human interest. Early telescopic observations revealed color changes on the surface that were attributed to seasonal vegetation and apparent linear features were ascribed to intelligent design. Further telescopic observations found two moons, Phobos and Deimos, polar ice caps and the feature now known as Olympus Mons, the Solar System's second tallest mountain. The discoveries piqued further interest in the study and exploration of the red planet. Mars is a rocky planet, like Earth, that formed around the same time, yet with only half the diameter of Earth, and a far thinner atmosphere; it has a cold and desert-like surface.
Exploration of Mars | Martian system
Below are images of some of the major chasmata of Mars. The map shows their relative locations.
Chasma | Mars
Comas Sola (sometimes as Comas Solá) is an impact crater on Mars, located in the Memnonia quadrangle at 19.59°S latitude and 158.51°W longitude. It measures in diameter. It was named after the Spanish Catalan astronomer Josep Comas Solá. The name was approved by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1973.
Comas Sola (crater) | Introduction
The orbit of is extremely eccentric, going from the orbit of planet Mercury out into the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter.
2017 QP1 | Introduction
Latitude and longitude are given as planetographic coordinates with west longitude.
List of craters on Mars | Introduction
We have the original images M07-00166 (red) and M07-00167 (blue), part of the gallery of MOC Global-Map Images, Subphase M07. The shadow is situated at roughly 14°N 236°W.
Transit of Phobos from Mars | Other images
The proposed landing sites will target 'wet' environments and include Valles Marineris (Melas Chasm and Juvantae Chasm), located near the confirmed recurring slope lineae, and Marte Vallis near dark slope streaks. Since the mission aims for access to a "special region", strict planetary protection sterilization protocols must be followed to prevent forward contamination of Earth microbes to Mars.
MELOS | Proposed landing sites
For several years, researchers have found methane in the atmosphere of Mars. After study, it was determined to be coming from a point in Syrtis Major, located at 10° N and 50° E. A recent study indicates that to match the observations of methane, there must be something that quickly destroys the gas, otherwise it would be spread all through the atmosphere instead of being concentrated in one location. There may be something in the soil that oxidizes the gas before it has a chance to spread. If this is so, that same chemical would destroy organic compounds, thus life would be very difficult on Mars.
Syrtis Major quadrangle | Methane
Burroughs is a large crater on Mars at latitude 72.5S / longitude 243.1W, with a diameter of . The crater is named after Edgar Rice Burroughs, the American science fiction novelist who wrote a series of fantasy novels set on the planet.
Burroughs (crater) | Introduction
Latitude and longitude are given as planetographic coordinates with west longitude.
List of craters on Mars: H–N | Introduction
Coordinates:
Marsalforn | External links
The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle is located in the northwestern portion of Mars’ eastern hemisphere and covers 0° to 60° east longitude (300° to 360° west longitude) and 30° to 65° north latitude. The quadrangle uses a Lambert conformal conic projection at a nominal scale of 1:5,000,000 (1:5M). The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle is also referred to as MC-5 (Mars Chart-5). The southern and northern borders of the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle are approximately and wide, respectively. The north-to-south distance is about (slightly less than the length of Greenland).
Ismenius Lacus quadrangle | Introduction
The Casius quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle is located in the north-central portion of Mars’ eastern hemisphere and covers 60° to 120° east longitude (240° to 300° west longitude) and 30° to 65° north latitude. The quadrangle uses a Lambert conformal conic projection at a nominal scale of 1:5,000,000 (1:5M). The Casius quadrangle is also referred to as MC-6 (Mars Chart-6). Casius quadrangle contains part of Utopia Planitia and a small part of Terra Sabaea. The southern and northern borders of the Casius quadrangle are approximately 3,065 km and 1,500 km wide, respectively.
Casius quadrangle | Introduction
The Tartarus Montes are a mountain range on the planet Mars, stretching over 1070 km and located around the coordinates 15.46º N, 167.54º E, between Orcus Patera and the Elysium volcanic region. Albedo was first identified from the contrast of bright and dark signals photographed by Eugène Antoniadi.
Tartarus Montes | Introduction
Several enormous, circular impact basins are present on Mars. The largest one that is readily visible is the Hellas basin located in the southern hemisphere. It is the second largest confirmed impact structure on the planet, centered at about 64°E longitude and 40°S latitude. The central part of the basin (Hellas Planitia) is 1,800 km in diameter and surrounded by a broad, heavily eroded annular rim structure characterized by closely spaced rugged irregular mountains (massifs), which probably represent uplifted, jostled blocks of old pre-basin crust. (See Anseris Mons, for example.) Ancient, low-relief volcanic constructs (highland paterae) are located on the northeastern and southwestern portions of the rim.
Geology of Mars | Large impact basins
Jeans is an impact crater in the Mare Australe quadrangle of Mars, located at 69.8°S latitude and 205.9°W longitude. It is 80.2 km in diameter and was named after James Hopwood Jeans, and the name was approved in 1973 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). The pictures below show dark areas in which frost is disappearing and the dark ground beneath is being exposed. Layers are also visible—probably from the many cycles of mantle deposition.
Jeans (Martian crater) | Introduction
Main is an impact crater on Mars, located in the Mare Australe quadrangle at 76.6°S latitude and 310.9°W longitude. It measures 109.0 kilometers in diameter and was named after Rev. Robert Main. The name was approved in 1973, by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). The floor of Main shows dark portions which are caused by pressurized carbon dioxide blowing dust in the atmosphere in the spring when the temperature goes up. Some of the dust is shaped into streaks if there is a wind. Many ideas have been advanced to explain these features.
Main (Martian crater) | Introduction
Northeast Syrtis is a region of Mars once considered by NASA as a landing site for the Mars 2020 rover mission. This landing site failed in the competition with Jezero crater, another landing site dozens of kilometers away from Northeast Syrtis. It is located in the northern hemisphere of Mars at coordinates 18°N,77°E in the northeastern part of the Syrtis Major volcanic province, within the ring structure of Isidis impact basin as well. This region contains diverse morphological features and minerals, indicating that water once flowed here. It may be an ancient habitable environment; microbes could have developed and thrived here.
Northeast Syrtis | Introduction
The planet is 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth, resulting in just 43% of the amount of sunlight. If Mars had an Earth-like orbit, its seasons would be similar to Earth's because its axial tilt is similar to Earth's. The comparatively large eccentricity of the Martian orbit has a significant effect. Mars is near perihelion when it is summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the north, and near aphelion when it is winter in the southern hemisphere and summer in the north. As a result, the seasons in the southern hemisphere are more extreme and the seasons in the northern are milder than would otherwise be the case.
Mars | Climate
Mars is the only other planet in the Solar System besides Earth on which deserts have been identified. Despite its low surface atmospheric pressure (only 1/100 of that of the Earth), the patterns of atmospheric circulation on Mars have formed a sea of circumpolar sand more than 5 million km (1.9 million sq mi) in the area, larger than most deserts on Earth. The Martian deserts principally consist of dunes in the form of half-moons in flat areas near the permanent polar ice caps in the north of the planet. The smaller dune fields occupy the bottom of many of the craters situated in the Martian polar regions.
Desert | Deserts on other planets
Quenisset is an impact crater on Mars, located in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle at 34.6° N and 319.4° W. It measures 138 kilometer in diameter. Adopted by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1973, the crater was named after French astronomer Ferdinand Quénisset.
Quenisset (crater) | Introduction
" is a Mars-crossing asteroid, a member of the dynamically unstable group, located between the main belt and near-Earth populations, and crossing the orbit of Mars at 1.666 AU. It orbits the Sun inside the innermost region of the asteroid belt at a distance 1.5–2.9 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,199 days; semi-major axis of 2.21 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.31 and an inclination of 27° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with a precovery published by the Digitized Sky Survey and taken at Palomar in May 1954, more than 33 years prior to its official discovery observation.
(15700) 1987 QD | Orbit and classification
This model used the planetographic control point network developed by Merton Davies of the RAND Corporation. As radiometric techniques increased the precision with which objects could be located on the surface of Mars, the center of a 500 m circular crater was considered to be insufficiently precise for exact measurements. The IAU Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements therefore recommended setting the longitude of the Viking 1 lander, for which there were extensive radiometric tracking data, as marking the standard longitude of 47.95137° west. This deﬁnition maintains the position of the center of Airy-0 at 0° longitude, within the tolerance of current cartographic uncertainties.
Geography of Mars | Zero meridian
The station is located on Devon Island, a Mars analog environment and polar desert, approximately north east of the hamlet of Resolute in Nunavut, Canada. The station is situated on Haynes Ridge, overlooking the Haughton impact crater, a diameter crater formed approximately 39 million years ago (late Eocene). The location is approximately from the Geographic North Pole and approximately from the Magnetic North Pole. FMARS is the first research station of its kind to be built, completed in the summer of 2000. Operated by the non-profit Mars Society, the station's mission is to help develop key knowledge needed to prepare for human Mars exploration, and to inspire the public by making real the vision of human exploration of Mars.
Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station | Background
The top right is a close-up demonstrating the locations of the perihelia (q) and aphelia (Q) of Ceres and Mars. In this diagram (but not in general), the perihelion of Mars is on the opposite side of the Sun from those of Ceres and several of the large main-belt asteroids, including 2 Pallas and 10 Hygiea. The bottom diagram is a side view showing the inclination of the orbit of Ceres compared to the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Ceres was once thought to be a member of an asteroid family. The asteroids of this family share similar proper orbital elements, which may indicate a common origin through an asteroid collision some time in the past.
Ceres (dwarf planet) | Orbit
Significant amounts of water are located at the south pole of Mars, which, if melted, would correspond to a planetwide ocean 5–11 meters deep. Frozen carbon dioxide () at the poles sublimes into the atmosphere during the Martian summers, and small amounts of water residue are left behind, which fast winds sweep off the poles at speeds approaching . This seasonal occurrence transports large amounts of dust and water ice into the atmosphere, forming Earth-like ice clouds.
Terraforming of Mars | Advantages
Latitude and longitude are given as planetographic coordinates with west longitude.
List of craters on Mars: A–G | Introduction
Cydonia lies in the planet's northern hemisphere in a transitional zone between the heavily cratered regions to the south and relatively smooth plains to the north. Some planetologists believe that the northern plains may once have been ocean beds, and that Cydonia may once have been a coastal zone. It is in the Mare Acidalium quadrangle.
Cydonia (Mars) | Location
Mars is scarred by a number of impact craters: a total of 43,000 craters with a diameter of or greater have been found. The largest confirmed of these is the Hellas impact basin, a light albedo feature clearly visible from Earth. Due to the smaller mass and size of Mars, the probability of an object colliding with the planet is about half that of Earth. Mars is located closer to the asteroid belt, so it has an increased chance of being struck by materials from that source. Mars is more likely to be struck by short-period comets, "i.e.", those that lie within the orbit of Jupiter.
Mars | Impact topography
Spallanzani is a crater on Mars, located in the Hellas quadrangle at 58.0° south latitude and 86.4° east longitude. It measures approximately 72 kilometers in diameter and was named after Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729–1799). The name was adopted by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1973.
Spallanzani (Martian crater) | Introduction
Syrtis Major Planum is a "dark spot" (an albedo feature) located in the boundary between the northern lowlands and southern highlands of Mars just west of the impact basin Isidis in the Syrtis Major quadrangle. It was discovered, on the basis of data from Mars Global Surveyor, to be a low-relief shield volcano, but was formerly believed to be a plain, and was then known as Syrtis Major Planitia. The dark color comes from the basaltic volcanic rock of the region and the relative lack of dust. A possible landing site for the "Mars 2020" rover mission is Jezero crater (at ) within the region.
Syrtis Major Planum | Introduction
Beer is a crater lying situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars, named in honor of the German astronomer, Wilhelm Beer. It is located at 14.4°S 351.8°E . Beer and collaborator Johann Heinrich Mädler produced the first reasonably good maps of Mars in the early 1830s. When doing so, they selected a particular feature for the prime meridian of their charts. Their choice was strengthened when Giovanni Schiaparelli used the same location in 1877 for his more famous maps of Mars. The feature was later called Sinus Meridiani ("Middle Bay"), but following the landing of the NASA probe MER-B Opportunity in 2004 it is perhaps better known as Meridiani Planum.
Beer (Martian crater) | Introduction
Williams is an impact crater on Mars, located in the Memnonia quadrangle at 18.7°S latitude and 164.3°W longitude. It measures 123.2 kilometers in diameter and was named after British astronomer Arthur S. Williams. The name was approved by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1973.
Williams (Martian crater) | Introduction
The basin floor contains thick, structurally complex sedimentary deposits that have a long geologic history of deposition, erosion, and internal deformation. The lowest elevations on the planet are located within the Hellas basin, with some areas of the basin floor lying over 8 km below datum. The two other large impact structures on the planet are the Argyre and Isidis basins. Like Hellas, Argyre (800 km in diameter) is located in the southern highlands and is surrounded by a broad ring of mountains. The mountains in the southern portion of the rim, Charitum Montes, may have been eroded by valley glaciers and ice sheets at some point in Mars's history.
Geology of Mars | Large impact basins
Latitude and longitude are given as planetographic coordinates with west longitude.
List of craters on Mars: O–Z | Introduction
It is located on the corner of College Street and University Avenue in the city of Toronto’s Discovery District, adjacent to the University of Toronto and its affiliated research hospitals at the University Health Network. The MaRS development consists of two phases.
MaRS Discovery District | Facilities
Trouvelot is a crater on Mars, located in the Oxia Palus quadrangle at 16.2° north latitude and 13.1° west longitude near the crustal dichotomy in the circum-Chryse region. It is roughly located along the dichotomy between Arabia Terra to the northeast and the southernmost of the circum-Chryse outflow channels to the southwest. Trouvelot crater measures approximately 149 kilometers in diameter and was named after Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, a French astronomer (1827–1895). The naming was adopted by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1973.
Trouvelot (Martian crater) | Introduction
El Capitan is a layered rock outcrop found within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars, this geological outcrop was first discovered and observed by the Mars Exploration Rover "Opportunity" in February 2004. The rock outcrop was named for El Capitan, a topographical mountain lying within the state, Texas.
El Capitan (Mars) | Introduction
Pavonis Mons (Latin for "peacock mountain") is a large shield volcano located in the Tharsis region of the planet Mars. It is the middle member of a chain of three volcanic mountains (collectively known as the Tharsis Montes) that straddle the Martian equator between longitudes 235°E and 259°E. The volcano was discovered by the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1971, and was originally called Middle Spot. Its name formally became Pavonis Mons in 1973. The equatorial location of its peak and its height make it the ideal terminus for a space elevator, and it has often been proposed as a space elevator location, especially in science fiction.
Pavonis Mons | Introduction
Pindus Mons is a mountain on the planet Mars which is located in Tempe Terra. It has a diameter of and an elevation of . The name was approved in 1991.
Pindus Mons | Introduction
Suess is an impact crater in the Mare Australe quadrangle of Mars, located at 67.1°S latitude and 178.6°W longitude. It measures 71.9 kilometers in diameter and was named after Austrian geologist Eduard Suess. The name was approved in 1973, by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.
Suess (Martian crater) | Introduction
Kepler is a crater on Mars, located in the Eridania quadrangle at 46.8° S, 140.9° E. It measures approximately and was named in 1973, by the International Astronomical Union, in honor of the astronomer Johannes Kepler. A section of the floor of Kepler was photographed by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on 25 March 2006. Kepler is an example of a well-preserved peak ring crater on Mars.
Kepler (Martian crater) | Introduction
Richardson is a crater in the Mare Australe quadrangle on Mars, located at 72.6°S and 180.4°W. It measures 95.9 kilometers in diameter and was named after Lewis Fry Richardson. The name was approved by the International Astronomical Union in 1973.
Richardson (Martian crater) | Introduction
This is a list of all named labes. Coordinates are given as planetocentric latitude with east longitude.
List of Labes on Mars | List of labes
Protonilus Mensae is an area of Mars in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle. It is centered on the coordinates of 43.86° N and 49.4° E. Its western and eastern longitudes are 37° E and 59.7° E. North and south latitudes are 47.06° N and 39.87° N. Protonilus Mensae is between Deuteronilus Mensae and Nilosyrtis Mensae; all lie along the Martian dichotomy boundary. Its name was adapted by the IAU in 1973. The surface is described as fretted terrain. This terrain contains cliffs, mesas, and wide flat valleys. Surface features are believed to have been caused by debris-covered glaciers. These glaciers are termed lobate debris aprons (LDA) when surrounding mounds and mesas.
Protonilus Mensae | Introduction
Schiaparelli is an impact crater on Mars, located near the planet's equator at latitude 3° south and longitude 344° in the Sinus Sabaeus quadrangle. It measures approximately 459 kilometers in diameter and was named after Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, known for his observations of the Red Planet and his mistranslated term "canali". The name was adopted by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature in 1973.
Schiaparelli (Martian crater) | Introduction
The Mare Acidalium quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle is located in the northeastern portion of Mars’ western hemisphere and covers 300° to 360° east longitude (0° to 60° west longitude) and 30° to 65° north latitude. The quadrangle uses a Lambert conformal conic projection at a nominal scale of 1:5,000,000 (1:5M). The Mare Acidalium quadrangle is also referred to as MC-4 (Mars Chart-4). The southern and northern borders of the quadrangle are approximately 3,065 km and 1,500 km wide, respectively.
Mare Acidalium quadrangle | Introduction
The city's name has been given to a crater on the surface of Mars. was officially adopted by the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (IAU/WGPSN) in 1991. The crater lies at 53.8° south latitude and 32.6° west longitude, with a diameter of .
Kamloops | Planetary nomenclature
The temple is located at a place called "Haut-Bécherel".
Temple of Mars (Corseul) | Location
Hagal is the informal name of a dune field on Mars located below the north pole of Mars. Its name derives from the sand dunes in Frank Herbert's novel "Dune" and the fictional planet Hagal. It is located at coordinates 78.0° N latitude, 84.0° E longitude, and consists of linear and round dunes with a southeast slipface orientation. It was one of the dune formations targeted for imaging by the HiRISE camera, on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, at the rate of one image every six weeks. in the third year (MY31–Mars Year 31) of its seasonal expedition. It is also known as the "Martian Morse Code" due to the linear and rounded formations of its dunes, which have the appearance of dots and dashes.
Hagal dune field | Introduction
Given that it is a planet, the geography of Mars varies considerably. However, the dichotomy of Martian topography is striking: northern plains flattened by lava flows contrast with the southern highlands, pitted and cratered by ancient impacts. The surface of Mars as seen from Earth is consequently divided into two kinds of areas, with differing albedo. The paler plains covered with dust and sand rich in reddish iron oxides were once thought of as Martian 'continents' and given names like Arabia Terra ("land of Arabia") or Amazonis Planitia ("Amazonian plain"). The dark features were thought to be seas, hence their names Mare Erythraeum, Mare Sirenum and Aurorae Sinus.
Geography of Mars | Topography
Mars is a commune in the Ardèche department in southern France.
Mars, Ardèche | Introduction
Some locations on Mars display a large number of cones. Many have pits at the top. There have been a number of ideas put forth as to their origins. Some are in the Casius quadrangle like the ones below.
Casius quadrangle | Cones
The geography of Mars, also known as areography, entails the delineation and characterization of regions on Mars. Martian geography is mainly focused on what is called physical geography on Earth; that is the distribution of physical features across Mars and their cartographic representations.
Geography of Mars | Introduction
Baldet Crater is an impact crater in the Syrtis Major quadrangle of Mars, located at 23.0°N latitude and 294.6°W longitude. It is 180.0 km in diameter and was named after Fernand Baldet, and the name was approved in 1973 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). Baldet crater overlaps the rim of the larger Antoniadi crater, which lies to the west, just outside this image on the left. Antoniadi crater is more than twice as big as Baldet.
Baldet (Martian crater) | Introduction
Of all the planets in the Solar System, the seasons of Mars are the most Earth-like, due to the similar tilts of the two planets' rotational axes. The lengths of the Martian seasons are about twice those of Earth's because Mars's greater distance from the Sun leads to the Martian year being about two Earth years long. Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about at the winter polar caps to highs of up to in equatorial summer. The wide range in temperatures is due to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat, the low atmospheric pressure, and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil.
Mars | Climate
Von Kármán is an impact crater in the Argyre quadrangle of Mars, located at 64.6°S latitude and 58.5°W longitude. It is in diameter. It was named after Hungarian-American aeronautical engineer Theodore von Kármán. The crater contains a large field of dunes. Usually, the dunes are very dark because they contain the dark volcanic rock basalt. However, in the winter they are become covered with frost. The pictures below show the frost disappearing. Dark spots appear on dunes in the higher latitudes of Mars. Sometimes geysers form near the spots. They have two main features (dark dune spots and spider channels) that appear at the beginning of the Martian spring on dune fields covered with carbon dioxide (CO or 'dry ice'), mainly at the ridges and slopes of the dunes; by the beginning of winter, they disappear.
Von Kármán (Martian crater) | Introduction
Hydaspis Chaos is a region in the Oxia Palus quadrangle of Mars, located at 3.2° north latitude and 27.1° west longitude. The region is about 355 km across. It was named after a classical albedo feature.
Hydaspis Chaos | Introduction
The Granicus Valles are a network of valleys in the Amenthes quadrangle of Mars, located at 30° north latitude and 229° west longitude. They are 750 km long and are named after the ancient name for a river in Turkey. The system has been identified as outflow channels.
Granicus Valles | Introduction
One way the surface of Mars has been categorized, is by thirty "quadrangles", with each quadrangle named for a prominent physiographic feature within that quadrangle.
Exploration of Mars | Martian system
Magelhaens is an impact crater in the southern highlands of Mars, located at 32.36° south latitude and 185.42° east longitude, in the Phaethontis quadrangle. Its diameter is 105 km. Its name refers to Ferdinand Magellan, the 16th century Portuguese explorer. Magelhaens is located southwest of the volcanic region of Tharsis. It is surrounded by rocky peaks of unknown origin. These forms may be the result of tectonic movements in the Tharsis region, or of meteorite impacts.
Magelhaens (Martian crater) | Introduction
Bianchini is a crater in the Thaumasia quadrangle of Mars, located at 64.2°S latitude and 95.4°W longitude. It is 71 km in diameter and was named after Italian astronomer Francesco Bianchini; the name was approved in 1973 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN).
Bianchini (Martian crater) | Introduction
Hipparchus is an impact crater in the Phaethontis quadrangle of Mars, located at 44.8° S latitude and 151.4° W longitude. It is in diameter. It was named after the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus in 1973.
Hipparchus (Martian crater) | Introduction
Australia has many sites that parallel the Martian landscape. Springs, channels, and dry land are the geographical features the Mars Society Australia searched for. To find sites, an expedition crew drove out to different areas in Australia carefully examining the different environments. Abandoned landscapes were found which resembled the constraints that would have to be dealt with on Mars. For example, the curvature of the Dalhousie and Strangways mound springs resemble the springs created by volcanic and tectonic fissures on Mars. Also, the Henbury craters resemble Martian craters; the Henbury craters have internal swamps and on Mars, there are signs of water seepage in the craters.
Australia Mars Analog Research Station | Methods of finding sites
Mars's equator is defined by its rotation, but the location of its prime meridian was specified, as was Earth's, by choice of an arbitrary point which was accepted by later observers. The German astronomers Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler selected a small circular feature in the Sinus Meridiani ('Middle Bay' or 'Meridian Bay') as a reference point when they produced the first systematic chart of Mars features in 1830–32. In 1877, their choice was adopted as the prime meridian by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli when he began work on his notable maps of Mars. In 1909 the ephemeris makers decided that it was more important to maintain continuity of the ephemerides as a guide to observations and this definition was "virtually abandoned." After the Mariner spacecraft provided extensive imagery of Mars, in 1972 the Mariner 9 Geodesy/Cartography Group proposed that the prime meridian passed through the center of a small 500 m diameter crater (named Airy-0), located in Sinus Meridiani along the meridian line of Beer and Mädler, thus defining 0.0° longitude with a precision of 0.001°.
Geography of Mars | Zero meridian
However, all current geophysical models assume some sort of jet or geyser-like activity on Mars. Their characteristics, and the process of their formation, are still a matter of debate. These features are unique to the south polar region of Mars in an area informally called the 'cryptic region', at latitudes 60° to 80° south and longitudes 150°W to 310°W; this 1 meter deep carbon dioxide (CO) ice transition area—between the scarps of the thick polar ice layer and the permafrost—is where clusters of the apparent geyser systems are located.
Geysers on Mars | Introduction
The Thaumasia Planum of Mars lies south of Melas Chasmata and Coprates Chasmata. It is in the Coprates quadrangle. Its center is located at 21.66 S and 294.78 E. It was named after a classical albedo feature. The name was approved in 2006. Some forms on its surface are evidence of a flow of lava or water the Melas Chasma. Many wrinkle ridges and grabens are visible. One set of grabens, called Nia Fossae, seem to follow the curve of Melas Chasmata which lies just to the north. Some researchers have discovered dikes in this region. For the study, Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) daytime infrared images, THEMIS nighttime infrared images, CTX images, and HiRISE images were used.
Thaumasia Planum | Introduction
Babakin is a crater in the northeast of Thaumasia quadrangle of Mars, located in the northeast of Aonia Terra located southwest of Bosporos Planum and further southeast of Coracis Fossae. The crater is located at 36°S latitude and 71.44°W longitude. It is 76.66 km in diameter and was named after Soviet space engineer Georgy Babakin. Its name was approved in 1985.
Babakin (Martian crater) | Introduction
Huxley is a crater in the Hellas quadrangle of Mars, located at 63.0°S latitude and 259.2°W longitude. It is 107.0 km in diameter. It was named after British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, and the name was approved in 1973 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN).
Huxley (Martian crater) | Introduction
The Solar System is located in the Milky Way, a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter of about 100,000 light-years containing more than 100 billion stars. The Sun resides in one of the Milky Way's outer spiral arms, known as the Orion–Cygnus Arm or Local Spur. The Sun lies between 25,000 and 28,000 light-years from the Galactic Centre, and its speed within the Milky Way is about 220 km/s, so that it completes one revolution every 225–250 million years. This revolution is known as the Solar System's galactic year. The solar apex, the direction of the Sun's path through interstellar space, is near the constellation Hercules in the direction of the current location of the bright star Vega.
Solar System | Galactic context
Newton is a large crater on Mars, with a diameter close to 300 km. It is located south of the planet's equator in the heavily cratered highlands of Terra Sirenum in the Phaethontis quadrangle. The crater was named in 1973 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) in honor of British physicist Sir Isaac Newton. Three smaller craters within Newton have been named. Avire is to the west of the central peak. Palikir and Dechu are to the southeast of the central peak.
Newton (Martian crater) | Introduction
The Mars Space Flight Facility is located at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. The facility is a research center in Arizona State University's School for Earth and Space Exploration. Scientists, researchers, and students there specialize in using instruments on spacecraft at Mars for remote sensing research primarily concerning the geology and mineralogy of the planet. The instruments based at the facility include the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and two Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometers (Mini-TES) on the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. (A full-size Mars rover model, bedded on reddish-brown sand, dominates the building's lobby.) Before the loss of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor in November 2006, the facility also operated the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) aboard the spacecraft.
Mars Space Flight Facility | Introduction
In the so-called perihelic opposition Mars is closest to the Sun and is particularly close to Earth: Oppositions range from about 0.68 AU when Mars is near aphelion to only about 0.37 AU when Mars is near perihelion.
Orbit of Mars | Oppositions
Pettit Crater is a crater in the Amazonis quadrangle of Mars, located at 12.39° north latitude and 173.87° west longitude. Pettit lies west of the giant volcano Olympus Mons. It is 92.49 km in diameter and was named after Edison Pettit, an American astronomer (1890–1962).
Pettit (Martian crater) | Introduction
During the Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop in late February 2017, NASA scientist Jim Green proposed a concept of placing a magnetic dipole field between the planet and the Sun to protect it from high-energy solar particles. It would be located at the Mars Lagrange orbit L at about 320 R, creating a partial and distant artificial magnetosphere. The field would need to be "Earth comparable" and sustain as measured at 1 Earth-radius. The paper abstract cites that this could be achieved by a magnet with a strength of . If constructed, the shield may allow the planet to restore its atmosphere.
Terraforming of Mars | Magnetic shield at L orbit
According to scientists, Mars exists on the outer edge of the habitable zone, a region of the Solar System where liquid water on the surface may be supported if concentrated greenhouse gases could increase the atmospheric pressure. The lack of both a magnetic field and geologic activity on Mars may be a result of its relatively small size, which allowed the interior to cool more quickly than Earth's, although the details of such a process are still not well understood. There are strong indications that Mars once had an atmosphere as thick as Earth's during an earlier stage in its development, and that its pressure supported abundant liquid water at the surface.
Terraforming of Mars | Advantages
Playfair is an impact crater in the Mare Australe quadrangle of Mars, located at 78.1°S latitude and 126.2°W longitude. It measures 64.2 kilometers in diameter and was named after Scottish scientist and mathematician John Playfair. The naming was approved in 1973, by the IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.
Playfair (Martian crater) | Introduction
Torsö Crater is a small impact crater in the Argyre quadrangle of Mars, located at 44.29° S and 51.18° W. It is 15.3 km in diameter. Its name was approved in 1976 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN), and refers to a town in Sweden. Along the rim of Torsö Crater, a number of gullies are visible.
Torsö (crater) | Introduction
The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is the second simulated Mars analog habitat owned and operated by the Mars Society. The station was built near Hanksville, Utah, in the western United States in the early 2000s, and it is typically crewed by small crews who visit the station for one week to three month rotations to conduct scientific research. The campus includes a two-story habitat (the Hab), a greenhouse (the GreenHab), a solar observatory (the Musk Observatory), a robotic observatory, an engineering pod (the RAM) and a science building (the ScienceDome). Tunnels between all of the buildings except the robotic observatory allow crews to travel between the buildings without a spacesuit while they are in simulation (sim).
Mars Desert Research Station | Introduction