Life on Mars? 5 Things You Need to Know About A Possible Habitable Planet

Mars has been a topic of discussion and experimentation among scientists for long. Efforts have been actively made on finding out any possible feature on Mars that may support life. We are not disappointed after all; yes, we have found atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. This discovery is the key to a better inspection of Mars, the red planet. Let us look at a few things that we need to know about this possible habitable planet.

1. The 'Red Planet.'

From the Sun, Mars is the fourth planet, and in size is the second smallest planet in our solar system. It is named after the Roman lord of war; Mars is additionally regularly portrayed as the "Red Planet" because of its ruddy appearance. Mars is a physical planet with a slender climate made mostly out of carbon dioxide. 

2. Landmass

Despite the fact that Mars has just 15% of the Earth's volume and a little more than 10% of the Earth's mass, around 66% of the Earth's surface is secured in water. Martian surface gravity is just 37% of the Earth's (which means you could jump almost three times higher on Mars). 

3. Housing the tallest mountain in the solar system

Olympus Mons, a shield fountain of liquid magma, is 21km high and 600km in measurement. In spite of having shaped over billions of years, confirmation of lava streams is so late, that numerous researchers trust it could still be alive. 

4. Mission to Mars

As of September 2014, there have been 40 missions to Mars, including orbiters, landers and meanderers however not including flybys. The latest landings incorporate the Mars Curiosity mission in 2012, the MAVEN mission, which touched base on September 22, 2014, trailed by the Indian Space Research Organization's MOM Mangalyaan orbiter, which reached base on September 24, 2014. The succeeding missions to arrive will be the European Space Agency's ExoMars mission, including an orbiter, lander, and a meanderer, trailed by NASA's InSight mechanical lander mission, slated for dispatch in March 2016 and an arranged entry in September 2016. 

5. The fallen pieces

Researchers have discovered little hints of Martian climate inside shooting stars viciously shot out from Mars, then circling the nearby planetary system amongst galactic flotsam and jetsam for a significant number of years, before crashing on Earth.