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Glossary term: Marte

Description: Marte é o quarto planeta a partir do Sol no Sistema Solar. É um planeta rochoso e terrestre com um raio de pouco menos de 3400 quilômetros (km), pouco mais da metade do raio da Terra. Marte possui uma atmosfera muito fina, um grande sistema de cânions e a montanha mais alta do Sistema Solar: um vulcão extinto chamado Monte Olimpo (Olympus Mons). Acredita-se que tenha abrigado água líquida no início de sua existência.

Sua distância típica do Sol é de cerca de 228 milhões de km ou 1,52 unidades astronômicas (distâncias Terra-Sol). Leva 687 dias para completar uma órbita ao redor do Sol. Marte tem duas pequenas luas, Fobos e Deimos.

Seu nome é uma referência ao deus romano da guerra. É frequentemente chamado de “planeta vermelho” devido à sua coloração avermelhada. Cientistas enviaram muitas sondas e módulos de pouso a Marte ao longo dos anos para estudar sua composição e atmosfera.

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

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Related Media


Rover Curiosity da NASA em uma colina em Marte.

Veículo espacial Curiosity

Caption: Este autorretrato do rover Curiosity da NASA mostra o veículo no local onde se posicionou para perfurar uma rocha chamada “Buckskin” na parte inferior do Monte Sharp. O autoretrato combina várias imagens capturadas pela Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) do Curiosity em 5 de agosto de 2015, durante o 1.065º dia marciano, ou sol, do atividades do rover em Marte.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS credit link

License: PD Public Domain icons


O planeta Marte com uma superfície vermelha enferrujada, vulcões, vales, crateras, nuvens de gelo e uma calota polar branca.

Marte

Caption: Esta imagem do planeta Marte, capturada pela sonda Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter da NASA em 1999, mostra sua superfície árida. A imagem destaca as regiões geológicas mais espetaculares de Marte. Além do profundo Valles (vale) Marineris, vemos quatro vulcões. Enquanto três deles formam a cordilheira Tharsis, o Monte Olympus é o maior vulcão já descoberto no Sistema Solar. Nuvens de gelo cobrem partes da superfície marciana.
Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS credit link

License: PD Public Domain icons


The Milky Way over a cloudy landscape. A triangle of bright objects is visible on the left of the image.

Equatorial Milky Way

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns: Equatorial Milky Way   Taken in Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park, Java Island, Indonesia, in March 2016, this image captures regions of the southern Milky Way and, at its left edge, the two planets Mars and Saturn. Mars appears orange and is similar in colour to the star Antares, whose Greek name — anti Ares — references this. Saturn is a little bit fainter than Mars, but clearly visible among the stars of Ophiuchus, above the Pipe Nebula and forming an isosceles triangle with Mars and Antares. Mars is on the top and Saturn is vertically below. Visible to the naked eye, both planets have significance in many cultures around the world. In Roman mythology Mars is the god of war and fertility, and Saturn the god of sowing and agriculture. Its Greek equivalent, the god Kronos, is also considered the regent of completion. Indigenous Australians, including the Kamilaroi and Wailan people, associate Saturn with “wunygal”, a small bird. Mars is called Iherm-penh (something burnt in flames) by the Anmatyerre people of the Central Desert, while the Kokatha people of the Western Desert associate Mars and the star Anatres with the red-tailed black cockatoo (Kogolongo). In the middle of this photograph, the most famous southern constellations are clearly recognisable: the Southern Cross (Crux), the pointer stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri, the dark Coalsack Nebula and the red Eta Carina Nebula, which is not visible to the unaided eye but is prominent in modern photographs. In the 19th century, the star eta Carinae had been the second-brightest star in the sky for some time, but since it varies irregularly, it has hardly been recognisable in recent decades, and its future visibility is unpredictable. Triangulum Australe is visible between the pointer stars and the Scorpion, and in the constellation of Centaurus, the bright globular star cluster Omega Centauri is clearly displayed. It was considered a “nebulous star” since antiquity and, thus, was listed in star catalogues for at least 2000 years. Only within the last century did astronomers discover that globular star clusters are in the halo of our galaxy and that this one consists of roughly 10 million stars. The dark regions in the Milky Way, which are cool, dense clouds of dust and gas, form the head and body of the Celestial Emu Tchingal. Together with the Southern Cross and the pointer stars, they appear in the Dreamtime stories of many Indigenous Australians. One story associated with the Djab Wurrung and the Jardwadjali people is part of a Dreamtime Story involving Tchingal, the Bram-bram-bult brothers (the pointer stars), their mother Druk (Delta Crux), and Bunya the hunter, who gets transformed into a possum (Gacrux, the red star at the top of the Southern Cross).
Credit: Giorgia Hofer/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons


A montage of images of Mars, seen here as a series of red dots in a squashed z-shaped pattern.

Retrograde Motion of Mars

Caption: Winner in the 2023 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images with smartphones-mobile devices. This image captures the celestial waltz of Mars as it demonstrates its intriguing retrograde motion against the background of fixed stars. This event, when Mars appears to backtrack in its orbit, arises from the different speeds at which Earth and Mars orbit the Sun. Earth’s faster movement occasionally positions it ahead of Mars, creating the illusion of the Red Planet moving in reverse from our perspective. This retrograde motion occurs when Mars is on the other side of the sky from the Sun, when it is said to be in opposition. Following Mars from 14 August 2022 to 5 April 2023, this smartphone image stands as a testament to perseverance and precision in the tranquil setting of Bataan, Philippines. Enduring unpredictable weather and ever-shifting celestial alignments, the photographer meticulously captured each shot at regular intervals of five to eight days. The process involved aligning 35 distinct images of Mars, taken without any external lens or telescope, alongside a stacked background image composed of 54 frames lasting 15 seconds each, portraying the starry expanse. Fusing these images involved precisely aligning them and cropping Mars in order to centre its position, revealing its retrograde movement against the backdrop of stars. This intricate process, blending the images seamlessly into the background by masking, highlights the planet’s unique motion. In the lower right corner, the Pleiades star cluster is visible.
Credit: Rob Kerby Guevarra/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons


The dark, irregular shape of Phobos crosses the lower portion of the Sun’s disk, obscuring roughly one quarter of it.

Transit of Phobos from Mars

Caption: This video shows the Sun viewed from Mars as Mars’ moon Phobos transits across the solar disk. This video is composed of images taken from the Martian surface on the 30th of September 2024 by the Mastcam-Z camera of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. While our Moon is perfectly sized to eclipse the Sun when seen from the Earth’s surface, Phobos’s size and orbit mean that it cannot cover the solar disk completely. This means that this event is a transit and not an eclipse. This video is in real time, with the entire transit lasting just 32 seconds. This compares with the several hours a solar eclipse on Earth takes from the Moon first obscuring part of the Sun to the Sun being completely visible again. This is due to Phobos’ much shorter orbital period of just over seven and a half hours compared to the Moon’s orbital period of 27 days as well as the solar disk appearing slightly smaller from Mars than it does from Earth. Note the non-spherical shape of Phobos as it crosses the solar disk.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS credit link

License: PD Public Domain icons

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License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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