Pasadena, California:
Mars is set to get its latest visitor Sunday night when NASA's new robotic rover, named Curiosity, attempts to land there. Mars has been a prime target for space exploration for decades, in part because its climate 3.5 billion years ago is believed to have been warm and wet, like early Earth.
Here are the five facts you should know about planet Mars:
Mars is called the red planet because the landscape is stained rusty-red by the iron-rich dust.
Its gravity is only 38 per cent that of Earth. So if you weigh 68 kgs on Earth, you would weigh 25 kgs on Mars.
Mars' temperatures can range from 80 degrees at its equator to -199 degrees at its poles.
Mars' atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide with traces of nitrogen and argon. Earth's atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen and other gases.
Days in Mars last 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth.
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