Why Is Mars Red? Explained With Interesting Facts

Mars—where humans will feel 62.5% less gravity as compared to earth’s gravity—is red. It is that planet where a year includes 687 days and is known as the fourth planet from the Sun. Mars is the only planet in the solar system referred to as the ‘Red Planet’, but have you ever wondered why it is red? Well, in this all-inclusive article, we will shed light on the reason why Mars is red, and if it is red all the time or if sometimes becomes butterscotch?

Recent data from Google Trends shows that people have been interested in knowing about the reason behind the redness of Mars. Some viral conspiracy theories also claim that Mars was not always like this and that it was a result of a nuclear war. Today, we have decided to debunk all such controversies and myths that are there about why Mars is red.

TL;DR — The simpler explanation of why Mars is red is that it has iron oxide in its outer layers—more than twice as much as here on Earth. It is no wonder that Mars is full of those large rocks, so when they oxidise, they turn red—the same way a bike gets rusty if left out in the yard for a long time.

Why is Mars Red in Colour? Explained

So, why does Mars has a reddish tint to it?

Well, if you look at mars from Earth, it will certainly look red, that is why ancient Egyptians also called it ‘The Red One.’ But if you have a close look through an orbiter, rover, or lander, you will realise that it is more of a butterscotch colour.

Photos taken by the Hubble team suggest that Mars did not look like this before, it used to look like charcoal in the past. But it is not a matter of some years, it started around 4.5 billion years back when our solar system formed.

It is the minerals that have to do with the change in the colour of Mars. Some places on Mars have different colours, such as brown, golden, tan, or sometimes a little greenish — all because of the mineral that are around in the atmosphere.

5 Interesting Facts About Mars

Now that you have come to know why Mars is red, let us go over some interesting facts that you might not know about or might have taken wrong.

1. Name: Mars got its name from the Roman god of war. Furthermore, it is sometimes referred to as a ‘Child’ of Juno and Jupiter. They even considered it the father of Rome’s founding twins, i.e., Remus and Romulus.

2. Life existence: Although there is no proof supporting the existence of life on Mars, some scientists believe that there is life after we recently found that there is water ice under its surface.

3. Moons: Just like our planet Earth has its own moon, Mars has its own moons, too—namely Phobos and Deimos. These two moons of Mars have been named after two horses that pull the chariot of the Roman god of war.

4. Size: Mars is smaller than our green planet, Earth. It has a diameter of 4217 miles. That is why it is known as the second-smallest planet in our solar system. Put differently, Mars only has the 15% volume of Earth. That means, 6 same-sized Mars can fit into Earth, and still have a lot of room.

5. Gravity: When it comes to the gravity of Mars, it is also smaller than that of Earth. It means that if you jump on Mars, you would go three times higher than you would if you jumped on Earth. This will also make walking a lot easier on Mars; although, people would be required to wear protective spacesuits. Some astronauts may also suffer from some bone loss. In space, people may lose one to two per cent of their bone mass—which usually happens in the spines, hips, and legs.

Why is Mars Red? — Wrapping Up!

Now that we come to know why Red is red most of the time and sometimes, butterscotch, it is time to wrap it up, but before we do that, let us first go over other similar, interesting articles to feed the curiosity in you.

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We hope that you found this article on ‘Why is Mars Red?’ useful and that it turned out to be as interesting as it could get. If you would like to continue your space exploration, please give the aforementioned articles a little space of your precious time.

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