◆ Mars

  Mars is the 4th planet in the solar system, a rocky world.

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  Type              Planet
  Magnitude         1.3
  Distance          1.92 AU, 16 light-minutes
  Apparent size     5″
  Illuminated       93%

  Known as
  Symbol            ♂

  Physical
  Radius            3,390 km, 0.53 of Earth's
  Mass              0.107 of Earth's
  Density           3.93 g/cm3
  Surface gravity   3.7 m/s2, 0.38x Earth's
  Escape velocity   5.0 km/s
  Day               24h 37m
  Year              1.881 Earth years
  Axial tilt        25.2 degrees
  Albedo            0.15, reflects 15% of the light hitting it
  Temperature       210 K, -63 C
  Moons             2, Phobos and Deimos

  More information about Mars

  Mars is half the width of the Earth, cold, and rusty enough that it
  looks orange to the naked eye. Because it is further from the Sun than
  we are, it goes round more slowly, and every 26 months the Earth catches
  it up and passes it. Around those dates it comes close enough for even a
  small telescope to show dark markings and a white polar cap. For the two
  years in between it shrinks back to a featureless dot. Mars is the god
  of war, matched to Babylonian Nergal, god of plague. The Greeks had
  called the planet Πυρόεις, "the fiery one", for its colour, and half the
  world's names for it still describe the colour rather than the god.

  Not settled: The root of Mars itself is not known. An Etruscan origin is
  often proposed and cannot be shown.

  History
  Discovered      known since antiquity
  First visited   Mariner 4, 1965
  Missions        Viking         1976-1982
                  Pathfinder     1997
                  Spirit         2004-2010
                  Opportunity    2004-2018
                  Curiosity      2012-
                  InSight        2018-2022
                  Perseverance   2021-

  Etymology
  From            Latin
  Reading         Mars, older Mavors
  Literally       unknown

  ┌ Babylon
  │ Nergal, god of plague
  │
  ├ Greece · 4th c. BC
  │ Ares, before that Pyroeis, the fiery one
  │ Ἄρης
  │
  └ Rome
    Mars

  where it is tonight:  skymap.sh/Mars