Bigger than Mercury, but smaller than Venus, Mars is the second-smallest planet in our solar system. With a radius of 3,396 kilometres when measured along the equator, and a radius of 3,379 kilometres when measured along the poles, Mars is small. It is only a little more than half the size of the Earth! Mars is also less dense. This gives Mars a mass that comes around to just 11 per cent that of the Earth. As a result, its gravitational pull is also lesser – only 3.72 metres per second square, approximately one-third that of the Earth.
So if you ever get a chance to go to Mars, don’t forget to pack your weighing scales, because once there, you will see that you weigh only about one-third of what you did on the Earth! You can even jump three times higher than you normally do! Cool, isn’t it?
If all this fun makes you want to settle down on Mars and never come back, you can be sure of one thing – you will never have to worry about finding living space. Though Mars has only 28 per cent of the Earth’s total surface area, it is equivalent to the land mass available here. (Remember, two-thirds of our planet is covered by water!) So there is, theoretically speaking, enough space to accommodate all of us on Mars. We just have to find ways to make food, water, air and shelter to survive!
Picture Credit : Google
