Mars

The rusted frontier

Vital statistics

• Mean radius: 3,390 kilometres
• Mass: 6.42 × 10²³ kilograms
• Surface gravity: 3.71 metres per second squared
• Sidereal rotation: 24.6 hrs
• Orbital period: 687 days
• Mean temperature: -65 °C
• Known moons: 2
• Axial tilt: 25.19 degrees

Field notes

• Olympus Mons is two and a half times the height of Everest and roughly the size of Arizona — so wide that from its summit, the slopes would stretch past the horizon.
• Martian sunsets are blue. The fine dust scatters red light across the sky, leaving a cool blue glow around the setting Sun.
• Its dust storms are the largest in the solar system — some swallow the entire planet for months.
• A Mars day is 24 hours 37 minutes, so rover teams on Earth live on 'Mars time', sliding their whole schedule 37 minutes later every single day.

Data: NASA Planetary Fact Sheets. Explore the full interactive 3D map at the home page — every orbit is computed from real Keplerian elements.