terrestrial planet
Mars
The Red Planet: a cold desert world with giant volcanoes, a vast canyon system and clear traces of ancient rivers and lakes.
- Distance from Earth today
- 213.1 million km1.424 AU · light: 11 min 51 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 238.7 million km1.595 AU
- As of
- 2 November 2026Live distance and chart →
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Diameter
- 6,792 km
- Mass
- 0.642 × 10²⁴ kg
- Density
- 3,934 kg/m³
- Surface gravity
- 3.7 m/s²
- Escape velocity
- 5.0 km/s
- Rotation period
- 24.6 h
- Length of day
- 24.7 h
- Mean distance from the Sun
- 228.0 million km (1.524 AU)
- Perihelion
- 206.7 million km
- Aphelion
- 249.3 million km
- Orbital period
- 1.88 years
- Mean orbital velocity
- 24.1 km/s
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.094
- Orbital inclination
- 1.8°
- Axial tilt
- 25.2°
- Mean temperature
- -65 °C
- Surface pressure
- 0.010 bar
- Known moons
- 2
- Rings
- no
- Global magnetic field
- no
Source of the figures: NASA Planetary Fact Sheet (public domain).
Description
Mars owes its rusty colour to iron oxides in its dust and rocks. Today it is a cold, dry world with a thin carbon-dioxide atmosphere, polar ice caps and planet-wide dust storms, but dried-up river valleys, deltas and lake beds show that liquid water once flowed there. It hosts Olympus Mons, the tallest known volcano in the Solar System, and Valles Marineris, a canyon system that would stretch across a continent on Earth. Mars is the most explored planet after Earth: Viking 1 made the first long-lived landing in 1976, InSight listened for marsquakes, and the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are studying ancient habitable environments, with Perseverance collecting rock samples for a future return to Earth. Many orbiters and passing probes, including Rosetta, Dawn and Hera, have observed it as well.
Surface map and landing sites
Texture: Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0) · names: IAU/USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
| Mission | Site | Date | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perseverance (Mars 2020) | Octavia E. Butler Landing, Jezero Crater | 18 February 2021 | 18.445° N, 77.451° E |
| Curiosity (MSL) | Bradbury Landing, Gale Crater | 6 August 2012 | 4.590° S, 137.442° E |
| InSight | Elysium Planitia | 26 November 2018 | 4.502° N, 135.623° E |
| Viking 1 | Thomas Mutch Memorial Station, Chryse Planitia | 20 July 1976 | 22.270° N, 47.950° W |
Moons
Missions
- NASA · 2024Europa Clipperorbiter · active
- ESA · 2024Heraorbiter · active
- NASA · 2023Psycheorbiter · active
- NASA · 2020Perseverance (Mars 2020)rover · active
- NASA · 2018InSightlander · ended
- NASA · 2011Curiosity (MSL)rover · active
- NASA · 2007Dawnorbiter · ended
- ESA · 2004Rosettaorbiter · ended
- NASA · 1975Viking 1lander · ended