Life on Mars Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Life on Mars - Essay Example Mars is the fourth planet of the solar system. It is in direct contrast to Venus with its hot and opaque atmosphere (Chambers 1999). Mars is a barren desert. It is covered with red dust that is why Mars is also called the Red Planet. There is no water on Mars. It is 1,524 A.U away from the sun (McKay, et. al 1996). Mars orbits the sun once after every 687 days (Baucom 2006). Its equatorial diameter is 6,787 km. In terms of radius, Mars as compared to Earth is nearly half of the Earth. Mars has two moons, called Phobos and Deimos (Chambers 1999). In terms of climate, Mars resembles Earth. The seasons of the planet Mars are nearly double as compared to the Earth’s seasons (Tosca, et. al 2008). In winter season, the temperature falls to -140 degree centigrade and in the summer season, the temperature reaches maximum at 20 degree centigrade (Krasnopolskya, et.al 2004). The atmosphere of Mars is unable to store solar heat because it is thin as compared to Earth’s atmosphere (Sagan 1980). The water that is present on the surface of Mars is in forms of water ice. Dry ice (carbon dioxide) is also present on the surface of Mars due to which, the ratio of carbon dioxide is maximum of the surface of Mars (Chambers 1999). There are no seas on Mars. Mount Olympus, the highest mountain of the whole solar system is located on Mars. As compared to Mount Everest, it is three times higher. It has many volcanoes in it. The atmosphere of Mars is able to protect the planet from the meteorites that try to enter its atmosphere (McKay, et. al 1996). Viking conducted several experiments for discovery of presence of life on Mars. Martian soil was accessed by means of experiments in order to evaluate the existence of microorganisms (Krasnopolskya, et.al 2004). After analyzing the results of the experiments, no organic molecules were found from the conducted experiments. In the year 2003, there were traces of