Mars
About Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", for its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous atmosphere that is primarily carbon dioxide. At the average surface level the atmospheric pressure is a few thousandths of Earth's, atmospheric temperature ranges from −153 to 20 °C, and cosmic radiation is high. Mars retains some water, in the ground as well as thinly in the atmosphere, forming cirrus clouds, fog, frost, larger polar regions of permafrost and ice caps, but no bodies of liquid surface water. Its surface gravity is roughly a third of Earth's or double that of the Moon. Its diameter, 6,779 km (4,212 mi), is about half the Earth's, or twice the Moon's, and its surface area is the size of all the dry land of Earth.
On the show · 273 mentions total
The plot of The Martian relies on a storm on Mars, which is the only thing in it that is not factually accurate.
from Little Fish: I am Dorkus, Queen of the Dorks · read transcript
More facts about Mars
The largest volcano we know of is on Mars.
No Such Thing As Chekhov's Volcano · listen
On Mars's smallest moon the gravity is so weak that if you built a ramp you could ride a bike straight into space.
264: No Such Thing As Bikes In Space · listen
On that Martian moon the gravity is so low that if you fell off you would fall for 12 minutes before hitting the ground.
264: No Such Thing As Bikes In Space · listen
On Mars your average jump would take you three feet up for two seconds.
264: No Such Thing As Bikes In Space · listen
Mars's two moons were discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877, after his wife Angeline calculated they would be closer to the planet than anyone thought and told him to look again.
264: No Such Thing As Bikes In Space · listen
In Gulliver's Travels in 1726, 150 years before they were discovered, Jonathan Swift described Mars's two moons and even their orbital periods.
264: No Such Thing As Bikes In Space · listen
One mission was the first to give Mars a thorough checkup since the planet formed 4.5 billion years ago, but its drill, nicknamed the Mole, got stuck.
315: No Such Thing As Tedious Moss · listen
NASA rehearses trips to Mars in the Utah desert, and someone at NASA even created a Mars flag.
89: No Such Thing As Utah Fried Chicken · listen
It snows on Mars, though not the classic kind of snow.
98: No Such Thing As Planet George · listen
About 2.5 million years ago a rock left the surface of Mars and shot out into space.
No Such Thing As A Bouncy Asteroid · listen
A bacteria that survived spacecraft sterilisation may have gone into space, so there could be Earth bacteria on Mars right now.
610: No Such Thing As Lily Allen In The Hellespont · listen
Kepler guessed Mars had two moons purely by logic, reasoning that Earth had one and Jupiter four, so the planet in between must have two.
264: No Such Thing As Bikes In Space · listen
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Coordinates: 84.0000, 100.0000