The Sun, Moons, & Mars
Let's meet the aliens!
By Julianna Milidantri
Day & Night on Mars
(picture courtesy of buzzle.com)
Years on Mars
(picture courtesy of www.space.com)
Seasons on Mars
(picture courtesy of blogs.discovermagazine.com)
Phases of the Moon(s) on Mars
Phobos
Deimos
Our Moon Phases
(picture courtesty of www.universetoday.com)
Tides on Mars
(picture courtesy of en.wikipedia.org)
Eclipses on Mars
Mars will have lunar eclipses because it has a Sun that it revolves around, and the moon(s) have enough of a tilt to sometimes reach the ecliptic plane. An eclipse is when an something comes between another object and the Sun. The tilt of Deimos is about 0.93 degrees, and Phobos' tilt is about 1.093 degrees. (Remember, Phobos and Deimos are Mars' two moons.) The 'ecliptic plane' is the level in which a moon, the Sun, and Mars are lined up exactly. This causes the moon to be in a shadow, which is a lunar eclipse. In a solar eclipse, the moon is between the Sun and Mars and casts a shadow on Mars. The moon may even appear red, because light from the atmosphere refracts onto the moon. Eclipses will happen more often on Mars than on Earth, about twice a month to be exact, because there are two moons that could eclipse. However, only one moon would eclipse at a given time.
(picture courtesy of www.spaceacademy.net.au)
Note: although the image below shows Earth, the same concept of eclipses applies to Mars. The picture below specifically shows a lunar eclipse.
Comparison of Earth & Mars
Mars will have years because it revolves around the Sun. It revolves specifically around the Sun, because the Sun has more mass and therefore more gravity than Mars. This is the same with Mars' moons revolving Mars, they have less mass than Mars, so they revolve it. It will be different from Earth because:
** Its revolution time is much longer than Earth’s. Earth's revolution time, or the time it takes to make one full orbit around the sun, is 365.25 days (which is why we have a leap year every 4 years, because .25 * 4 is 1.0 year).
** Mars' period of revolution, however, is 687 Earth days. Why is Mars' period of revolution so much longer? It is longer because, as pictured below, Mars is farther from the Sun. This will affect its period of revolution because it will have to make a larger orbit in order to complete a full revolution, and that takes longer.
** Mars has 2 moons and Earth has only 1.
Mars and Earth are also similar because:
** They both make elliptical orbits (oval-shaped orbits). In addition, they each revolve in the same direction around the Sun.
** A final similarity is they revolve around the sun at similar speeds, Earth revolving at 30 km/sec (according to link A below) and Mars revolves at 24 km/sec (according to link B below).
A: coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu
B: www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Speeds.shtml
(picture below courtesy of http://illuminations.nctm.org/)