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Mars:
The Red Planet
The
first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner
4 in 1965.
The southern hemisphere of Mars is predominantly
ancient cratered highlands and the northern
hemisphere consists
of plains which are much younger.
The
temperature on Mars can be very, very
cold. On its warmest day, Mars can still
be a very cold place. At the top and
bottom of the planet are poles just
like on Earth.
Mars
has many craters which were formed by
meteorites or asteroids hitting it.
Mars also has some of the tallest volcanoes
and some of the deepest valleys in our
solar system. Mars has two moons, Phobos
and Deimos which have unusual shapes.
Scientists think these potato-shaped
moons were once asteroids captured by
Mars' gravitational pull.
(NASA) |
