Completely satisfied New 12 months on Mars

That is the thirty eighth martian yr. The conference for counting years within the martian calendar began in 1955, with the primary yr coinciding with a serious storm named ‘the nice mud storm of 1956’.

There are some vital variations between years on the 2 planets:

• Days: A martian day is known as a ‘sol’ and lasts 24 hours and 39 minutes, barely longer than an Earth day.
• Years: One yr on Mars equals 687 Earth days, or 668 sols, practically twice so long as an Earth yr. If you want to know your martian age, divide your present age by 1.88 and inform your folks how a lot youthful you’re… on Mars, no less than!
• New 12 months: The martian New 12 months begins on the northern equinox (northern spring, southern autumn on Mars).
• Seasons: Like Earth, Mars has 4 seasons – winter, spring, summer season and autumn. In contrast to Earth’s seasons, martian seasons should not of equal lengths attributable to Mars’ extra elliptical orbit. The planet’s axial tilt causes the northern hemisphere to obtain extra daylight throughout the northern summer season, and the southern hemisphere to obtain extra daylight in northern winter. Winter and summer season come when the northern and southern hemispheres tilt away from the Solar in flip.
• Mud seasons: The second half of the martian yr is commonly marked by fierce mud storms that may typically develop into planet-wide. As Mars swings nearer to the Solar, the ambiance heats up, inflicting winds to carry up very fantastic particles from the martian soil. As soon as airborne, these brownish particles warmth up and redistribute a few of that heat to the encircling ambiance.  This course of can quickly pump quite a lot of mud.
• Climate: Temperature swings between day and evening are excessive on Mars. At midday on a summer season’s day, air temperature can attain 0ºC however will plunge to -60 ºC at evening.  In winter, evening temperatures are even colder, dropping to -110 ºC.  A recurring climate phenomenon is the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, a cloud of ice crystals that may attain as much as 1800 kilometres in size.

Future New Years on Mars

What can be your martian New 12 months’s decision? Share your reply on ESA’s X, Fb and Instagram accounts.

Listed here are the resolutions from the ESA groups working for Mars exploration. For those who want some inspiration, here’s a poem Dutch writer Marjolijn van Heemstra dedicates to Mars.