Hadiah Nobel - Akademi Sains Malaysia

ARS (Greek: Ares) is the god
of War. The planet probabty
got this name due to its red
colour; Mars is sometimes
relerred to as the Red Planet. (An
interesting side note: the Roman ood
Mars was a god ol agriculture bel-ore
becoming associated with the Greek
Ares; those in favor ot colonising and
lerralorming Mars may prefer this
symbolism.) The name of the month
March derives from Mars.
Mars has been kno$/n since prehisloric
limes. lt is still a favourite of scignce
ficlion writers as the most lavourable
place in lhe Solar System (other than
Earth!) for human habitation.
The first spacecratt to visit Mars was
Mariner 4 in 1965. Severat others
followed including Mars 2, the first
spacocratt to land on Mars and the two
Viking landers in 1976 (tett). Ending a
long 20 year hiatus, Mars Pathfinder
landed successtully on Mars on 1997
July 4 (right).
Mars' orbit is significan y elliptical.
One result of this is a temDerature
variation of about 3CPC at the subsolar
point between aphelion and perihetion.
This has a maior influence on Mars'
climate.
While the average temp€rature on
Mars is about 2t8oK (-550C, -6ZF),
Marlian surlace temperatures range
l. What ls another nane br Ma|B
2. Whldl u{as thg flr8t sgac€crafr to
vieit Mars
3. Who thlnks ot Mars ae a
fa\ourable plac€ ior habltataton
,f. How ls Mats and Earth sarn€ or
dfielgno
widely from as little as 140oK (-133oC, - surface and the bulk statistics of the
207'F) at the winter pole to almost planet The most likely scenario is a
30CPK (27"C, 80oF) on the day side dense core aboul 1700 km in radius, a
dunng summer.
mollen rocky mantle somewhal denser
Though Mars is much smaller than than the Eanh's and a thin crust.
Earth, its sudace area is about the Dala from Mars Global Surveyor
same as the land surface area ol Earth. indicates that Mars' crust is about 80
Except for Earth, Mars has the most km thick in the southern hemisohere
highly varisd and interesting terrain of but only about 35 km thick in the north.
any of the lerrestrial planets, some ol it Mars' relatively low density
qurte spectacular:-
compared to the other terrestrial
o Olympus Mons: the largest planets indicates that its core probabty
mountain in lhe Solar System rising 24 contains a relatively large traction of
km above lhe surrounding plain. lts sulphur in addition to iron (iron and iron
base is mor€ than 500 km in diameler sulfide).
d is rimmed by a clitf 6 km high. Like Mercury and the Moon, Mars
Tharsis: a huge bulge on the appears to lack active plate tectonics at
Martian surtace that is about 40OO km present; there is no evidence of recenr
ross and 10 km hioh.
horizontal motion ot the surlace sucn
Valles Marineris: i system of as the folded mountains so common on
canyons 4000 km long and from 2 to 7 Earth. Wilh no lateral plate
deep (top ot page);
motion, hot-spots under
Hellas Planitia: an impact crater in the crust stay in a
the southem hemisphere over 6 km fixed position
deep and 2000 km in diameter. relative to the
Much ol the Martian surface is verv surface.
old and cratered, but there are also
much youngeritt valleys,
.
ridges, hills
This,
along with E
and Dlains.
the lower .L
The southern hemisDhere of Mars ts sudace
predominanlly ancient cratered gravity,
highlands somewhat similar to the may {f.+ ,
Moon. In contrast, most of the norlhern accounl '5.-. . :!
hemisphere consists of plains which for the
are much younger, low€r in elevation Tharis
and have a much more comDlex bu196 and
hislory.
its
An abrupt elevation change ol enormous
sev€ral kilometerseems to occur at volcanoes.
the boundary The reasons tor this There is no
global dicholomy and abrupt boundary €vidence of current
are unknown (some speculate that they volcanic activity,
are due to a very large impact shorfly nowever.
atler Mars' accretion).
But there is n€w evidenc€ from
Mars Global Surveyor has produceo Mars Global Surveyor that Mars may
a nice 3D map of Mars that clearly have had tectonic activity in its €arly
sho$,is these features.
history, making comparisons to Earth
The interior of Mars is known onlv all the mor€ interestino!
by inference from data about the
esti8otmg ss