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2,000 sols on Mars
NASA is the American space agency. On August 5, 2011, a NASA scientist exclaimed “touchdown
confirmed”. After a space voyage lasting for nearly nine months, NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover had
successfully landed on the Martian surface.
Space scientists call days on Mars “sols”. On March 22, a NASA scientist made an announcement about
Curiosity ‘looks like we made it: 2,000 sols on Mars. Curiosity is a remotely operated vehicle, or rover.
About the size of a small car, it has six wheels. Since landing on Mars, the rover has traveled a distance of
18.6 kilometers. Now, it is slowly climbing the lower slopes of a peak called Mount Sharp.
There are eight planets in the Solar System. The four innermost ones, or those closest to the Sun, are
rocky. The planets farthest away are mostly made of gases. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun (the
Earth is the third). It is often called the Red Planet. In the night sky, Mars has a reddish color. It comes from
a mineral called iron oxide. This is very common on the Martian surface.
Mars is smaller than the Earth. Yet, of all the Solar System’s planets, Mars is the most Earth-like. Both
worlds have north and south polar ice caps made of water. Today, the Red Planet is dry, dusty and very
cold. Nearly all its atmosphere has gone. However, it is now known that Mars was very different about four
billion years ago. Then, it had flowing water, rivers, lakes and possibly a large ocean. It must have had thick
clouds and an atmosphere with large amounts of carbon dioxide.
On the Earth, a single orbit of the Sun takes one year, or 365 days. (A more exact figure is 365.26 days.)
Mars is about 78 million kilometers farther away from the Sun than the Earth. Therefore, the time it takes
Mars to orbit the Sun is longer. One Martian year is equal to 687 Earth days, or 1.88 Earth years (almost 23
Earth months).
Both the Earth and Mars spin on their axis. This
is an imaginary line that passes through the
center of a planet. One spin, or rotation, of the
Earth is one day, or 24 hours. Even though a
Martian year is almost twice as long as an Earth
year, the length of day is not dissimilar. This is
because Mars rotates at a similar speed. One
day (or sol) on Mars lasts for 24 hours and 39
minutes. Two thousand sols on Mars are equal to
2,055 Earth days.
Curiosity landed in what’s known as Gale Crater.
This huge crater is 154 kilometers wide. A large
asteroid striking Mars is believed to have created
it two billion years ago. The crater was chosen as
the landing site because of a mountain in its
center. The official name of this mountain is
Aeolis Mons. It’s more commonly known as Mount Sharp. The mountain is 5.5 kilometers high.
Scientists think that after the crater was formed, water and the wind filled it with sediment. This happened
over millions of years. The sediment gradually turned to rock. Later, wind eroded this rock so all that is now
left of the filled-in crater is the mountain in the middle of it. If this is how Mount Sharp was formed, rocks at
the top are the most recent, or younger. Those at the bottom are about two billion years old.
Curiosity is equipped with cameras, microscopes and even a laser-firing instrument. Its inner parts act like
a laboratory. Here, rock and soil samples collected by the river are studied and tested. Curiosity has made
several important discoveries. It has not detected any signs of life on Mars. However, it has discovered the
site of an ancient freshwater lake. In the past, the lake could have supported microbial life.
Comprehension Questions:
1. What do space scientists call days on Mars?
2. What is believed to have created Gale Crater?
3. With what is Curiosity equipped?
Discussion Questions:
1. What has Curiosity discovered about Mars?
2. What was Mars like four billion years ago?
3. What do you think of the Curiosity Rover?
4. What would you like to know about Mars?
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