I’m a 23-year-old student in Kyoto, and Mars is the planet that sparks my imagination. Known as the Red Planet, Mars is our closest neighbor after Venus and has fascinated people for centuries. It’s a rocky world with dusty plains, huge volcanoes, deep canyons, and signs of ancient water, making it a place where life might have existed. Scientists have sent rovers and orbiters to study it, and humans dream of walking there one day. Why is Mars red? What’s on its surface? Could we live there? Let’s explore Mars—its features, history, and mysteries—as I share my excitement about this incredible world.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, about 228 million kilometers from it on average, though it can be as close as 56 million kilometers to Earth. It orbits the Sun every 687 Earth days, almost twice as long as Earth’s year. Mars is smaller than Earth, with a diameter of 6,792 kilometers, about half Earth’s size, and a mass only 10% of Earth’s. Gravity is weaker, about 38% of Earth’s, so I’d weigh less and jump higher there. A day on Mars, called a sol, is 24.6 hours, just a bit longer than an Earth day. Mars spins on an axis tilted like Earth’s, giving it seasons, but they last longer because of its longer year.
The atmosphere of Mars is thin and cold, only 1% as thick as Earth’s. It’s mostly carbon dioxide (96%), with small amounts of nitrogen and argon. The thin air can’t hold much heat, so temperatures average -65°C, ranging from 20°C at the equator in summer to -140°C at the poles in winter. Dust storms, sometimes covering the whole planet, can last months, carried by winds up to 100 kilometers per hour. The atmosphere is too thin for humans to breathe, and the low pressure means water boils away quickly. Mars has polar ice caps made of water ice and frozen carbon dioxide, called dry ice, which grow in winter and shrink in summer.
Mars’ surface is a desert of red dust, rocks, and craters, colored by iron oxide, or rust, which gives it the red hue seen from Earth. The planet has the solar system’s largest volcano, Olympus Mons, 22 kilometers high and 600 kilometers wide, three times taller than Everest. It formed billions of years ago when Mars was more active. Valles Marineris, a canyon system near the equator, is 4,000 kilometers long, 200 kilometers wide, and 11 kilometers deep, much bigger than Earth’s Grand Canyon. Mars has flat plains, like Utopia Planitia, and ancient riverbeds, suggesting water once flowed. Craters, like Gale Crater, show impacts from asteroids, with fewer small craters because the thin atmosphere burns up smaller meteorites.
Mars formed 4.6 billion years ago, like Earth, from a cloud of gas and dust around the young Sun. Rocks collided to form the planet, and early Mars was warmer and wetter, with rivers, lakes, and maybe an ocean in the northern hemisphere. Evidence comes from clay minerals and dry river channels seen by rovers. About 3.5 billion years ago, Mars lost its magnetic field, likely because its core cooled and stopped moving. Without a magnetic field, solar wind stripped away most of the atmosphere, and water evaporated or froze. Mars became the cold, dry world we see today, but underground ice and possible water pockets remain.
Exploration has taught us much about Mars. In 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 flew by, sending the first close-up photos of craters. In 1976, Viking 1 and 2 landed, testing soil and taking color pictures. Since the 1990s, rovers have explored the surface. NASA’s Sojourner (1997) was the first to move, followed by Spirit and Opportunity (2004), which found signs of past water. Curiosity, landing in Gale Crater in 2012, found ancient lakebeds and organic molecules, hints of possible life. Perseverance, landing in Jezero Crater in 2021, collects rocks for a future return mission, seeking signs of ancient microbes. Its drone, Ingenuity, flew in 2021, the first aircraft on another planet. China’s Zhurong rover (2021) explored Utopia Planitia, and orbiters like NASA’s MAVEN and ESA’s ExoMars study the atmosphere. In 2025, new missions are planned, including Japan’s MMX to study Mars’ moons.
Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, likely captured asteroids. Phobos is 22 kilometers wide, orbits close, and may crash into Mars in 50 million years. Deimos, 12 kilometers wide, orbits farther. Both are dark, cratered, and irregular, unlike Earth’s round Moon. Mars’ lack of a strong magnetic field leaves it exposed to solar radiation, making surface life hard but not impossible underground or in ice.
Could life exist on Mars? Scientists think ancient Mars, with water and warmth, might have had microbes. Rovers found organic molecules, like carbon compounds, in rocks, but these can form without life. Methane spikes in the atmosphere, seen by Curiosity, could come from microbes or chemical reactions. Future missions, like Perseverance’s sample return, will test for biosignatures. If life never existed, Mars’ ice or subsurface could still host microbes brought by Earth spacecraft, so missions follow strict cleaning rules.
Humans dream of living on Mars. Companies like SpaceX plan colonies, but challenges are huge. The thin air requires sealed habitats with oxygen. Radiation is high, so bases might be underground or in lava tubes, natural caves seen in satellite images. Water ice at the poles or under the surface could be melted for drinking or fuel. Growing food would need greenhouses, and dust storms could damage equipment. In 2024, NASA tested Mars habitat designs in Texas, preparing for missions in the 2030s. Posts on X show excitement for human exploration, with some users joking about “Martian pizza” or red dust in shoes.
Mars teaches us about Earth. Its dry riverbeds warn of what happens if a planet loses water or air, like a caution for climate change. Studying Mars’ volcanoes and canyons shows how planets evolve. Its rocks, older than most on Earth, preserve a 4-billion-year history, helping us understand the solar system’s past. Mars is a test for space travel, teaching us how to live far from Earth, maybe preparing us for distant worlds.
Mars has inspired stories for ages. Ancient Egyptians called it the “red one,” linking it to gods. In Rome, Mars was the god of war. Japan’s myths tied it to the heavens. In the 1800s, astronomers like Giovanni Schiaparelli saw “canals,” sparking tales of Martian cities. Modern sci-fi, like The Martian, imagines humans surviving there. Mars’ red glow in the sky feels like a call to explore.
Mysteries remain. Did Mars have life? Is there water underground? Why did it lose its atmosphere? What caused the methane? Future missions, like sample returns and ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover, delayed to 2028, will look for answers. Scientists also study Mars’ moons to learn about its early years. New tech, like better rovers or drills, could reach ice or caves where life might hide.
I dream of seeing Mars through a telescope or in images from rovers. I imagine its red plains, giant Olympus Mons, and icy poles, a world both strange and familiar. Standing on Earth, I look at Mars’ red dot and feel wonder. It’s a planet of possibilities, teaching us about life, time, and adventure. Mars, with its dust, craters, and ancient rivers, is a red puzzle in our sky, waiting for us to solve.