What makes this world interesting
Iron oxides colour its soil. Missions have found many traces of a past in which liquid water was more abundant. Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.
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Planet
Mars
Terrestrial planet · The red world
A cold desert world with a thin atmosphere, giant volcanoes and vast canyons.
- Equatorial diameter
- 6 792 km
- Mean orbital distance
- 228,0 million km
- Orbital period around the Sun
- 687 days
Observe or explore it
Mars’s apparent size varies greatly with its distance from Earth. The periods near opposition are favourable; steady seeing helps reveal details.
Connect the discoveries
Sources and reference information
NASA Science — Mars · NASA/NSSDCA — planetary data
Rounded educational data, sources consulted on 18 October 2026. Orbital distances are mean reference distances from the Sun, not current distances from Earth. Periods are expressed in Earth time. The planner provides date-specific positions for supported targets.
Understand its motion. Explore a simplified orbit in the laboratory →