Mars is the 4th planet from the sun. Has a reddish surface.
Named after the Roman God of War because of its colour in the sky. Can life exist on this red planet? No, evidence from spacecraft revealed no sign of life even at microbial level.
Scientists have been researching this planet to find out if this could be a second home for us. 1/2 the size Earth. Its density is slightly greater than that of the Moon. It is suspected that the core is largely made of iron sulfide. This compound is twice as dense as the rock on the surface, resulting in the core being 2/3 the size of the total mass of the planet.

Has many distinguishable features. One Martian day is similar to that of Earth's it just has an extra 0.6 hours in it. Even more interestingly, its equator leans to a side, close to the amount of Earth's. Thus, creating daily and seasonal cycles as it orbits the Sun.
Though, the seasons are complicated due to solar heating because of the planet's strange orbit, Southern Hemisphere summer happens around Martian perihelion (Mars is closest to the sun) & is warmer than the Northern Hemisphere summer which occurs at aphelion (Mars is furthest from the Sun).
Observations have shown that the polar caps are frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice). The dark marking, which were thought to be canals, are actually cratered and eroded areas which surface dust blows into the atmosphere.
Mariner 9 entered orbit in 1971. At the time it entered orbit, a massive dust storm obscured & covered the entire landscape. The dust had been lifted by strong wind reaching hurricane proportions. Mariner 9 stayed in orbit &, after the storm subsided, sent information back to base about the planet's surface.
The German Aerospace Centre (GAC) have created tests to simulate the temperatures, atmosphere, minerals & light conditions of the surface based on info recieved from Mariner 9. In August 2012 AD, Curiosity Rover landed on the planet & had been collecting data of air circulation & weather systems. It is looking for water, harmful UV radiation & testing if life can be sustained under the surface.

Has a massive difference between Northern & Southern hemispheres. The Northern Hemisphere is mostly made of volcanic plains. Larger than that of Earth's or our Moon's, they were formed by eruptions with huge volumes of material. These plains are littered with volcanic rock & boulders blasted from meteoroids, because the Matian atmosphere is to thin to offer any resistance.
Sothern Hemisphere is cratered highlands lying 5km above the low level land up north. The darker regions are mountainous regions within the south. Evidence saying that, because the Southern Hemisphere is heavily cratered, the Northern Hemisphere's surface is younger, saying that the north is 3,000,000,000 & south is 4,000,000,000 years old. The boundary between the south & north is a 4km drop that spans 100km across.
It is thought that the Southern Hemisphere is the original crust but no one knows how the Norther lowered & how it flooded with lava.

The Tharsis Bulge is the major geological feature. It is around the size of North America, it lies on the equator & rises around 10km higher than the rest of the sirface. To the east lies the Chryse Planita (Plains of Isis). Wide depressions, 100s of km across & 3km deep. Tharsis is the only "continent" on Mars. Though, Mars has no tectonic plates, which means that Tharsis stays in the one spot.
Diagonally opposite of Mars, in the Southern Hemisphere, is the Hellas Basin which contains the lowest point on the planet. 3,000km across, 9km deep & 6km below the average level of the planet's surface. The Hellas Basin is actually an impact feature. The formation of such impact would explain the highlands around it. Impact calculated to have impacted 4,000,000,000 years ago, during the planet's formation.
The Borealis Basin around the north pole may be from one of the largest known impacts in out Solar System. Research conducted by the Mars Global Surveyor & Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests that the basin could've been formed when a celestial object, 2,000km across (twice the amount that of the asteroid, Ceres) struck Mars during formation stages. This could explain why the Northern Hemisphere is lower than that of the south's.

Associated to the Tharsis Bulge is the Valles Marineris (Mariner Valley).  Not really a canyon because running water did not partake in its creation. Suggested that a crustal force caused the Tharsis to bulge outwards, making the surface split & crack. These tectonic fractures are found all around the Tharsis Bulge. Valles Marineris is the largeast, fractures are believed to be 2,000,000,000 years old but the Valles Marineris is estimated to be 35,000,000,000 years old.
It runs almost 4,000km around the equator, equalling to about 1/5th of the way around. At its widest point, it is 120km wide & 7km deep in some places. Like most features on Mars surface, it is simply dwarfed to all competition on Earth. The Grand Canyon can easily fit into one of Mars' cracks. Valles Marineris can be seen from Earth. At the time of its discovery, it was though to be a canal, it was once known as the Coprates Canal.

Mars has 2 moons visible from Earth. They're Phobos (Fear) & Deimos (Panic), named after the son's of Ares (Greek God of War) & Aphrodite (Greek Goddess of Love). The moons are basically just large rocks trapped by the planets gravitational pull.
Discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877, they orbit close to Mars & only a few 10s km across. Composition is nothing to that of the planet's. Hard to observe because they are so close to their bright planet. Mariner & Viking orbiters studied them closely though.
Both irregularly shaped & heavily cratered. Phobos is the largest of the 2, it is 28km long and 20km wide with a crater 10km wide named Stickney (after Asaph Hall's wife, Angelina Stickney). Deimos is only 16km long & 10km wide. Its largest crater is 2.3km wide. They have very dark surfaces, only reflecting 6% of the light that hits them.
We have estimated the mass of the moons by the graviational effect on the Viking orbiters. Density=2,000kg/m squared, less dense than anything else we know of so far. This is the reason people don't believe that the 2 moons were formed with Mars. They could be asteroids that were captured by the planets atmosphere (which used to be stronger than it is now) but they could be pieces of a larger celestial body that broke up into pieces during capture.
It is expected that Phobos will plunge into the surface of the Northern Hemisphere & in a few 10,000,000s of years.
If they were captured, these moons hold evidence of what was around in the early times of the Solar System. Scientists want these large rocks to look at evidence of what was around before the major planets formed.

Mid-Term, Test 1-100%=10 points=O=Outstanding
4 on specific planets, 1 on Astronomy in general. Read carefully. Taken only once. No due date. True/False questions

Mid-Term, Test 2-100%=10 points=O=Outstanding
Open-book, no time limit. Own words.
Mercury-Describe surface & distinguishing features
Venus-Atmosphere & climate
Earth-Name major plates, types of boundaries & what are plates in Lithosphere?
Mars-Name moons, describe & brief history of their names.

10% Spelling/Grammar
15% Word Requirements (125 words/planet topic & 500 words altogether, over not under)
5% Identifying Marks
70% Bulk of Essay (Paragraphs/planet topic, factual, easy to understand, DON'T RAMBLE!)
Plagiarism=Automatic fail
Taken only once. No due date

True or False?-100%=10 points=O=Outstanding
Self-grading. No due date. True/False questions