Mars is a neighbour of the Earth and is situated at a distance of 54.5 million km from the Earth. It completes its rotation about its axis in 24 hours. As its axis is inclined like that of Earth, it exhibits all the seasons as are found on the Earth. Its atmosphere is however, lighter than that of the Earth. Its day temperature at the Equator is 20oC while night temperature is -50oC. It has two satellites: Phobos and Demos.
The spacecraft of U.S.A. known as Viking landed on its surface in the Summer of 1976. The data transmitted to us does not throw any positive light on the problem of the existence life on its surface.
Instruments aboard Viking provided useful information on the Martian atmosphere and surface. Biological experiments did not show signs of life or any of the organic compounds that are abundant on Earth.
The Viking 1 Mars lander kept transmitting photographs and other data from Mars until November 1982, almost 6 1/2 years after its 1976 landing. The Viking 2 lander ceased operating in April 1980.
In 2005, Spirit, a robot sent by NASA to explore Mars, has completed one martian year - that's almost two Earth years - on Mars. Designed to last only 90 martian days, the six-wheeled robot, the size of a golf cart, has done geologic fieldwork, bringing back some 70,000 images and a new understanding of Mars as a potential habitat. See NASA's website.
Asteroids
The space between Mars and Jupiter
is unusually wide. On the basis of mathematical considerations, there should be a planet in this space but no planet could be located inspite of many efforts. The Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta small planets (asteroids) have been discovered.
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page", St. Augustine said. Here at www.travel-university.org we believe that every page must be read and explored. Travel is an avenue of learning that no text or classroom can teach. The world is a living classroom and you the student. We invite you to the www.travel-university.org library where you can read general interest and detail oriented articles.
