Mars is said to be Earth’s twin plant. Few people can quarrel with that. Although lately astronomers have discovered newer, smaller planets that resemble Earth more than Mars does. But Mars role in Earthling history, real or imagined, remains unquestionable: There have been countless movies, stories, books, and artworks that depict Mars as a world- in-waiting.

Mars is long thought to harbor life because of the visible changes of color on its surface that is said to be caused by the changing of the seasons. It is widely known that Mars has warm and cold seasons, and a surface that looks deceptively habitable.

Mars Have Seasons Why Does Mars Have Seasons

Causes of Martian season cycles

Mars tilts as an angle similar to earth’s (2.19A). Like Earth Mars spins around an axis that doesn’t not move up or down. Mars’ axis slants, but it doesn’t change much except in relation to the sun. When Mars tilts to one side, the northern side points to the sun while on the other side of the orbit, the southern part faces the sun also. When most parts face the sun, naturally the sun gets a wider mileage. Back on the surface the sun’s light gets very intense, so the surface gets a lot warmer. This results in the summer season. The other part that looks away from the sun doesn’t get warm so winter settles in over there.

Because of Mars’ volatile atmosphere, the changing of the seasons is usually accompanied by extreme temperature swings that result in gigantic dust storms. If you’re lucky, which is very rare, you can see only a small relatively dust storm-free area. The rest of the planet is covered with violent sands swirls.  This occurs when Mars is lying closest to the sun.  Around this time it’s already summer on the planet’s southern hemisphere while its winter to the north. Experts observe that Mar’s southern hemisphere is more prone to violent dust storms than the northern hemisphere. Summer is also warmer in the southern hemisphere.

Mars Seasons Why Does Mars Have Seasons

Mars’ extreme seasons

While the changing of the seasons on Earth is celebrated in various ways, the changing of seasons in Mars is violent and unpredictable. Martian winters are impossibly cold (-125 degrees Celsius), although Martians summers are slightly less cold.   Martian seasons are twice as long as Earthling seasons–certainly, far colder than in our own Arctic.  The strange thing is that our own seasons have no visible effect on Mars, but Martian season cycles affect ours.

Earth and Mars

Mars and Earth orbit around the sun almost at the same speed. A Martian day is almost as long as an Earthling day (about 24 hours and 39 minutes). In that case, a year on Mars is almost as long as a year on Earth. The Earth has one moon, while Mars has two. Mars’s moons are called Deimos and Phobos. Phobos is a weird moon: It rises and sets for only about 11 hours. It sets in the east and rises in the west. Deimos, meanwhile, rises in the east and sets in the west for more than two days.

Mars may have harbored life millions of years go. But it’s a mystery why it went extinct.

Categories: General

Leave a Reply


Copyright © 2024 Why Does - Why Do Things Happen?.
Privacy Policy | Contact