Diameter | EARTH About 7,926 miles (12,756 kilometers) but growing, at least at the equator. | MARS Roughly 4,222 miles (6,794 kilometers), or 53 percent that of Earth. |
Distance from Sun | 1 astronomical unit (AU), or about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers), on average. | Ranges from 1.381 AU to 1.666 AU, due to non-circular orbit. |
Temperature | Way too hot in summer or way too cold in winter, depending on locale, or both. Planetwide: 47.3 degrees Fahrenheit (8.5 Celsius) over land areas. Warmer if surface air above oceans is figured in. | Ridiculously cold most of the time. Freezing in most places. Planetwide: -67 degrees Fahrenheit (-55 Celsius). Can be shirtsleeve during fleeting moments of daytime summer. |
Cosmic radiation | Manageable, protection courtesy a strong magnetic field. | Problematic, due to a weak magnetic field. |
Weather | Hurricanes, typhoons and tornadoes a real problem. Disgustingly interminable fog in coastal California. Utter lack of rain in parts of Africa. Way too wet in many other places. | Dust storms abound. Sometimes whole planet is obscured. Dust devils that soar higher into the atmosphere than terrestrial tornadoes and hurricane-like storms as big as Texas. |
Heft | 1 Earth mass. In kilograms, it's about 6 with twenty-four zeros after it. | About 10.7 percent that of Earth. |
Day | 23 hours, 56 minutes. | 24 hours, 37 minutes. |
Year | 365 days (the time needed to go around the Sun once). | 687 Earth-days, or about 670 Mars days. |
Gravity | Normal. | 38 percent of that found on Earth at sea level. |
Tilt of rotation axis | 23.5 degrees. | 25 degrees. |
Satellites | The Moon, plus several that communicate, and tons of junk as small as paint chips. | Two natural ones, Phobos and Deimos, plus two sent by NASA and more on the way. |
Air | Quite a bit. About 76 percent of it is nitrogen, with about 21 percent oxygen. Next most common, in order but in very small amounts: Argon, carbon dioxide, neon. | Not much. Less than 1 percent the density of Earth's air at the surface, and mostly carbon dioxide (95.3 percent). Trace of oxygen (0.15%). |
Caves | Many, and they're great places for microbial life to hide. | Maybe, and they're possible places for humans to hide. |
Snow | Tons. Like 1,140 inches at Washington's Mt. Baker during the 1998-99 season, a world record. That's 95 feet (29 meters). | Yes, surprisingly, but you wouldn't want to ski on it. And it's melting, perhaps due to global warming. |
Water ice | Yes, often invisible and under moving car tires. | Yes, much of it invisible and under the surface or beneath another kind of ice at the south pole. |
Dry ice | Sure. 4,200 pounds of it is used weekly in just one Vegas show. | Tons, covering the water ice at the south pole. |
Water | Inundates the place, especially in basements and during picnics. | Not a drop that we know of for sure -- yet. But possibly a lot long ago and maybe some today, under the surface. |
Friday, October 12, 2007
Earth vs. Mars
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment