Learning More About the Red Planet
Learning about planets is interesting but learning about Mars particularly is something more. Mars is a planet close to Earth and one of the planets that people are more likely to consider living on after Earth. Many scientists are working hard to improve the technology that would enable them to explore the red planet.
A cool way to see planets in the sky
Are you curious about the planets? Do you want to see them? There are many ways you can see the planets with the help of technology. You don’t even need a telescope to see the planets and stars in the sky. How? Magically, you can see the planets in the sky right through an app on your smartphone. One of the nice and free apps that you can try is Sky Map. How can you see the planets through the app? If you point your phone towards the sky, you will be able to differentiate and locate the planets or stars that you see in the sky right on the app. How cool is that! There is even a cooler way to see the planets using a Stellarium software that you can download at stellarium.org. The software is free, and you can install it on your Mac, Pc, Ubuntu, or other operating systems that support Stellarium software. The great thing about using the software is that you can use the software to learn more about Mars.
Planet Mars is cool.
You may be interested in observing the planet Mars through this software. Observing the planet Mars is interesting because of the way it moves. You will also notice the difference of this planet from other planets because of its redness. Interestingly, If you observe this planet carefully and draw a little picture of it today and come back in the next day to observe this planet for the second time, you will notice the planet is in a different location. It will be in a very different place if you come back to see it in a week or a month.
Why does Mars move like that?
Michael E. Brown, a professor of Planetary Astronomy at Caltech, explained how the planet Mars is moving around the Sun compared to the Earth moving around the Sun. “[U]nlike the Earth, which goes in, in orbit around the Sun in a nearly circular orbit, Mars is […] notably eccentric,”[1] so when we see Mars, “sometimes it’s further from the sun; sometimes it’s closer to the sun.”[1] That’s why we see Mars in a different location each day.Now you know a little bit about Mars and how to see the planets and stars in the sky without the help of a telescope.
Does Mars really have water?
Well, whether you believe it or not, Mars really does have water according to scientists’ finding. Nasa confirmed the presence of water flow on the red planet. Planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on 100 meter-long streaks flowing downhill on Mars that leads to the conclusion that streaks were indeed formed by liquid water.[2]
Source:
[1] Michael E. Brown, Caltech. Coursera course retrieved from https://www.coursera.org/course/solarsystem
[2] NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars. (2015, September 28) Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars
If you are interested in knowing more about this topic, you can take the course at Coursera or visit Mike Brown website. Prof Mike Brown is also known as a “man who killed pluto”.
Note: we do not have an affiliate relationship with Coursera nor with the website we mentioned above. We hope this post is useful for you. Please leave a comment to let us know what you think of this cool stuff.
Happy Learning.
