Olympus Mons is seen from above

Comparison between Mount Everest and Olympus Mons

2. People have always think about life on Mars because of the "canals" first seen by astronomers
This is why people always think about alien invaders coming from here, and not from Jupiter or Venus. Actually, Mars is one of the least habitable planets because freezing temperature, sun winds, and almost no atmosphere. The canals seen by astronomers are straight lines that scientists believe are evidence of water.

Mars Canyon

3. Mars is named based on the Roman God of War because its red color reminded observers of blood color
Red color of Mars is caused by its soil composed of iron oxide, or what we commonly call rust.

Mars is seen from Hubble Telescope

Mars Surface

4. Compared to the other planets in our solar system, Mars is quite small planet
It is half the size of the earth. Mars also has a third of the earth's gravity, means that you can jump three times higher that your jump on the earth.

Comparison between Mars and Earth

5. In the 1970's, Viking orbiter took pictures that seems to be giant face and pyramid on the planet's surface in Cydonia region
The picture looks like Egyptian Sphinx and is 2000 feet high. This discovery made UFOlogists excited; scientists say that is just eroded mesas. Many people still believe that the face are too symmetrical, and think it is evidence of ancient alien.

Giant Face on Mars

Giant Face on Mars enlarge

6. Mars has the wildest weather in the solar system
It has tremendous wind storms, dust storms and small tornadoes. In 2001, a huge dust storm covered the entire planet for several earth days. Scientists are confused why planet with little atmosphere could have storm such that. They don't know what causes the storm, but there are more storms when Mars gets closer to the sun. When it's on the farther end of its orbit, there are icy clouds made of carbon dioxide and dust. This is also strange since Mars has no surface water.

Mars weather in 2001

7. There has been a search for life on Mars, and also a search of water
After years of studying every crack on the planet's surface for evidence of water, scientists have finally found it. The Phoenix mission found that there are huge deposits of ice underneath the planet's surface.

Picture of microscopic rock indicating water on Mars

8. Mars has two moons, and one of it has chance to crash with Mars
One of the moons, called Phobos, has close orbit and is dangerous to Mars. Someday, the gravitational force will pull and crash to Mars. The debris will stay in Mars' orbit and making a ring like Saturn. At the end, the debris will fall down to Mars' surface. Scientists don't know when this will happen, but they predict it is going to happen in the next 50 years.

Mars' Moon; Phobos (left) and Deimos (right)

9. Only 1/3 of all the mission to Mars have been successful
Many missions have disappeared that made scientists to wonder there is something strange happens. They also have opinion that Mars is called as "Bermuda Triangle" og our solar system.

Article source from www.factsaboutmars.net
Image sources from NASA, Teleskop Hubble & Wikipedia