In the Earth’s Solar System, Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is approximately 230 million km away from it. The planet was named ‘Mars’ after the Roman god of war, and it is also called the red planet due to the red colour of its surface. It can easily be seen by the naked eye from Earth, and like Earth (which is the third planet from the Sun) it is one of the inner four terrestrial planets. This means that its surface is one of silicate rocks and metals.
However, there are many differences between the two planets. Mars is smaller than the Earth, having 15% of Earth’s volume and 11% of Earth’s mass. It also has 38% of Earth’s gravitational pull—meaning that you could jump approximately three times higher on Mars—and it has two moons, which are called Phobos and Deimos.
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