The mostly sub-zero conditions on Mars aren’t exactly ideal, but for the time that the temperatures on Mars do climb high enough, liquid water can flow on the surface. With no ‘thermal blanket’ to trap the Sun’s heat, a summer’s night on Mars could fall to -100 degrees C. With the atmosphere of Mars being 100 times thinner than on the Earth, daily temperature fluctuations are also quite extreme. Seasonal changes take the Martian temperature from 20 degrees C at the equator during summer down to -125 degrees C at the poles in winter. The average temperature on Mars is -60 degrees Centigrade. However the eccentricity of Mars’ orbit around the Sun is more than five times that of the Earth’s, and so its varying distance from the Sun throughout the Martian years plays a large role in its seasonal cycle too. Its 25 degree axial tilt means that Mars also experiences seasons. Mars’ axis is tilted by a similar amount to the Earth’s. That’s just less than two Earth years.Īlthough you wouldn’t age any quicker, living on Mars you’d only be celebrating a birthday roughly every two years, since a birthday is marking another orbit around the Sun. Since Mars is further from the Sun compared to the Earth, a Martian year is longer: 687 days. Global Colour Views of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS Temperatures are generally higher in the summer, even though we're actually further from the Sun. This is highlighted by the Earth-Sun distance being shorter in the winter season in the northern hemisphere and longer during the summer. We experience seasonal changes since the Earth’s axis is tilted (by 23.5 degrees).Īlthough the Earth has an eccentric orbit, its varying distance from the Sun throughout the year has little effect on the temperature compared to the effect of our planet’s axial tilt. The length of an Earth year is on average 365.25 days. It wouldn’t be too difficult to accustom ourselves to the cycle of a Martian day. But how would we have to adapt if we were seriously considering going to live on Mars? Its sidereal day is 24 hours, 37 minutes and 22 seconds, and its solar day 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds.Ī Martian day (referred to as “sol”) is therefore approximately 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth. Mars is a planet with a very similar daily cycle to the Earth. However Venus has retrograde motion so it spins in a clockwise direction, meaning its solar day (116 days and 18 hours) ends up being shorter than its sidereal day. Other planets have much longer days – Venus has a sidereal day of 243 days and 36 minutes.
The length of a Jovian sidereal day is 9 hours, 55 minutes and 30 seconds. There are some planets with very short days like Jupiter. Position 2 marks a sidereal day (23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds) and position 3 marks a solar day (24 hours). Staring at position 1, the Earth will be spinning on its axis and orbiting around the Sun. The 24 hour solar day is also considered an average because the Earth has an eccentric orbit around the Sun (it’s not a perfect circle). It doesn’t move at a constant speed throughout its orbit, and so the length of the solar day varies daily. That means it takes slightly longer each day – about four minutes – for the Sun to appear in the same part of the sky as it did the previous day. For the Earth a solar day is 24 hours long on average.Ī solar day is longer than a sidereal day because not only is the Earth spinning on its axis (anticlockwise) but it’s also orbiting around the Sun (anticlockwise). This is the amount of time it takes for a planet to spin on its axis so that the Sun appears in the same position in the daytime sky (typically when the Sun is on the local meridian). Although astronomers sometimes use the sidereal day as a passage of time, in our everyday lives we’re more familiar with the idea of a solar day. On the Earth that is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds. The time it takes for a planet to spin once so that the stars appear in the same position again in the night sky is known as a sidereal day. However the length of a day can be defined in two ways – a sidereal day and a solar day. We’re very accustomed to the daily cycle on our planet – the Earth spins anticlockwise on its axis, beginning the day with the Sun rising in the east and eventually setting in the west. That takes us into night and finally to a new day with the Sun rising once again. Its 'sidereal' day is 24 hours, 37 minutes and 22 seconds, and its solar day 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds.Ī Martian day (referred to as “sol”) is therefore approximately 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth. Mars is a planet with a very similar daily cycle to the Earth.
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