SUN	MERCURY	VENUS	EARTH	MARS	JUPITER	SATURN	URANUS	NEPTUNE	PLUTO
NOTE: planets and distance between planets is not to scale!

The planet Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, just after earth and before Uranus. The planet got it's name from Mars the roman God of War, it is a rocky planet with an atomsphere consisting mainly of Carbon Dioxide.

The temperature on mars can be as high as 27°c in the summer and as low as -133°c in the winter. It has two moons Phobos and Deimos named after the two horses that powered the chariot of Ares, the Greek god of War. Phobos and Deimos translates into Fear and Panic.

The planet is a source of fasicnation for scientists and many missions have been launched to discover more information about the red planet. It's thought that the planet could one day be made inhabitable through the process of terraforming. Terraforming could alter the atomsphere and weather of the planet so that humans could live there. However this technology is not yet available so missions are still being luanched to explore mars, some with the help of robotic rovers.

Mars has proved a good setting for many movies in recent years, with many portraying Mars as a source of exotice and sometimes deadly lifeforms

In reality Mars seems to be completely devoid of life, although there are signs that there could have been primative life forms there previously. It was thought until recently that the planet was also devoid of water, though new evidence seems to suggest that there could be masses of water beneeth the planets surface. If there is indeed water under the planets surface then there also a possiblity that there may be life forms of some kind.

We still know very little about the planet and future missions promise to teach us even more about the red planet.