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Asked by . to Craig, Flavia, Giuditta, Jack, Sheona on 7 Nov 2015.
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Jack Carlyle answered on 7 Nov 2015:
It’s quite similar to Earth, we think – they’re both mostly made of what we call “silicates”, which are things made of silicone and oxygen, and have cores made of mostly iron and nickel.
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Flavia de Almeida Dias answered on 7 Nov 2015:
Based on the latest data, the most common elements in the martian crust are silicon and oxygen (which make silicates, like earth, and sand, amongst other minerals). Mars is pretty similar to Earth on its crust and also on the layers under it. However, Mars atmosphere is very different – while in Earth the atmosphere is 78% of nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon and all other gases summed up (including carbon dioxide) are only about 0.1%, Mars has 95.97% carbon dioxide, 1.93% argon, 1.89% nitrogen and only 0.146% Oxygen! That explains why Matt Damon needed a mask to breath outside his base when he got stuck in there…
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Giuditta Perversi answered on 8 Nov 2015:
All the “terrestrial planets”, meaning Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, have a really similar compositions, all things considered, because they get the heavy elements to create the planet (instead of the light ones like Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune).
The surface of Mars, a bit like the one of the Earth, is made of rocks called “silicates”, so stuff made of Silicon, Oxygen and possibly something else.
Every time you walk on sand on a beach, you are walking on a silicate, for instance!The reason it is REALLY red is that, in comparison to Earth, is that there is a lot of iron dust and iron-containing rocks. When you put iron around everything tends to get red, just like rust on something old left outside for to long!
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