How about a little lessons about Mars and life in there. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is the last of the four inner planets. The inner planets are also called the rocky planets. These planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Mars is often called the "Red Planet" because that is its color. Here is a picture of "Twin Peaks" on the surface of Mars. You can see that the surface is rocky and sandy looking. The picture was taken on July 4th, 1997 by the Mars Pathfinder's camera. The "peaks" are the hills in the back of the picture. They are about 100 feet tall.

Mars spins very quickly compared to other planets. It only takes Earth 24 hours to spin around its axis one time. Mars spins around on its axis in 24 hours and 36 minutes. This means that the Martian Day is about half an hour longer than ours! One Mars Day is about 24 and one half hours long. Mars has a very long year. It is about 687 Earth days long! That is almost twice as long one year on Earth.

Mars has an atmosphere, but it is different than Earth's. Our atmosphere is made up of oxygen (which we breathe), nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases. Earth has a lot of water vapor in the air. Mars has "air" made up mostly of carbon dioxide. Other important gases in the air of Mars are nitrogen and oxygen. There is much less oxygen in the air of Mars than we have on Earth. We would not be able to breathe the air on Mars. Mars has water vapor in the air, but Earth has four times as much. Mars has weather, but it is different than Earth's. Scientists have pictures of clouds on Mars. The clouds are made of water vapor. Scientists do not know if it ever rains on Mars. They do know Mars has winds and very big dust storms.An interesting fact about Mars is that it has a North pole and a South Pole.