Mars the Red Planet
Look up at the night sky. Sometimes you can spot a tiny dot that looks a little bit ORANGE. That is not a star — it is Mars, a whole planet! People call Mars the Red Planet because its dirt is a rusty red color, kind of like the color of a penny left outside. Right now, little robot cars called rovers are driving around on Mars, taking pictures for us. Let's go explore!
What You'll Learn
1. Mars is a planet, and it looks red. 2. Mars is colder and dustier than Earth. 3. Robot rovers explore Mars for us.
Why Is Mars Red?
The ground on Mars is full of a dust that has iron in it, just like the metal that can turn rusty and orange. That rusty dust covers the whole planet! When you see Mars, you are seeing all that red dust. Mars even has giant dust storms that can cover the WHOLE planet in swirling red clouds.
Mars has the tallest mountain in our whole solar system! It is called Olympus Mons, and it is about 3 times taller than the tallest mountain on Earth. Imagine that!
Robots on Mars
People cannot live on Mars yet — it is too cold and there is no air to breathe. So we send robots! A rover named Perseverance landed on Mars in 2021. It has wheels, a camera, and a robot arm. The rovers roll slowly over rocks and sand, looking for signs that tiny living things might have lived on Mars long ago.
Match each Mars fact to the right answer.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
Why is Mars called the Red Planet?
How do we explore Mars right now?
Build Your Own Mars Rover
1. Get some paper and crayons. 2. Draw your very own Mars rover — give it wheels, a camera to take pictures, and a robot arm. 3. Color the ground around it RED like Mars. 4. Add Olympus Mons, a giant mountain, in the background. 5. Deliverable: your Mars scene drawing, and tell a grown-up one thing your rover would look for on Mars.
Flashcards — click each card to reveal the answer
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