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Mars is our second closest neighbor after
Venus.
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Mars Statistics |
| Length of Year |
687 days |
1.881 x Earth's |
| Length of Day |
24.66 hours |
1.029 x Earth's |
| Diameter |
6,746 km |
0.533 x Earth's |
| Mass |
6.4219e23 kg |
0.107 x Earth's |
| Orbit |
227,940,000 km |
1.52 AU |
| Mean orbital velocity |
24.13 km/s |
0.810 x Earth's |
| Gravity |
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0.379 x Earth's |
| Average Day temperature |
-5° C / 20 ° F |
| Average Night temperature |
-85° C / -120 ° F |
| Moons |
(2) Phobos and Deimos |
| Atmosphere |
Very thin carbon dioxide (95.3%) |
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| Mars Calendar of Events 2009 |
- Nov 24, 2009
- Mars comes closer than 1.0 AU.
- Nov 28, 2009
- Apparent brightness of Mars exceeds 0.0 mag.
- Dec 1, 2009
- Mars leaves constellation Cancer and enters Leo.
- Dec 3, 2009
- Apparent diameter of Mars exceeds 10".
- Dec 21, 2009
- Apparent brightness of Mars exceeds -0.5 mag.
- Dec 22, 2009
- Mars becomes stationary and then starts its retograde opposition loop, as Earth passes between the Red Planet and the Sun.
- Jan 1, 2010
- Mars shines at mag -0.77 in constellation Leo with an apparent diameter of 12.67". Distance from Earth is 0.73885 AU (111 million km).
- Jan 9, 2010
- Mars leaves constellation Leo and enters Cancer again, during retograde opposition loop.
- Jan 11, 2010
- Apparent brightness of Mars exceeds -1.0 mag.
- Jan 27, 2010
- Closest approach of Mars and Earth (0.664 AU = 99.33 million km). Apparent diameter of Mars is 14.105".
- Jan 29, 2010
- Mars opposition on Earth, Earth in inferior conjunction on Mars. Apparent brightness of Mars reaches -1.28 mag in constellation Cancer.
- Feb 14, 2010
- Mars' apparent brightness becomes fainter than -1.0 mag.
- Feb 21, 2010
- Mars at its greatest northern heliocentric ecliptic latitude (+1.8489 deg).
- Mar 5, 2010
- Mars' apparent brightness becomes fainter than -0.5 mag.
- Mar 11, 2010
- Mars becomes stationary to end its retograde opposition loop as the Earth has passed it on its inner orbit, and proceeds in prograde apparent motion.
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