Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. Mars is known as the Red Planet because it looks red due to the iron in its soil. Even though Mars is about one-sixth the of Earth, it has two moons named Phobos and Deimos. Mars’ surface is covered with canyons, volcanoes, and craters. There is also red dust that covers the surface of Mars. When the wind blows it can cause the dust to stir up into a huge dust storm sometimes covering the entire planet. Mars’ atmosphere consists of mainly carbon dioxide, argon, nitrogen, and some oxygen and water vapor. Many spacecraft have flown by Mars and many rovers and landers have landed on Mars. So far, the missions have revealed evidence of flowing water on Mars. Most recently, in 2004, two rovers landed on Mars. The names of the rovers are Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit was active until 2010 and Opportunity is still active in 2018 (NASA).