Sunsets and sunrises on mars are blue due to a large number of dust particles in the atmosphere. Blue light penetrates this type of atmosphere more effectively compared to the longer wavelengths of yellow and red light. For the same reason, during the day the sky appears orange due to the scattering of yellow and red light. ¹⁾

The fourth planet of the solar system is named after the Roman god of war, Mars, because of its red hue visible even with the naked eye. ²⁾

Mars has two small moons, Phobos (22.2 km, 13.8 mi) and Deimos (12.6 km, 7.8 mi). ³⁾

Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano on Mars, and the highest known mountain in the solar system, with a height of 16 miles (25 km). ⁴⁾

The length of the year on Earth is 365.25 days. The year on Mars is almost twice as long! It lasts for 687 Earth days. ⁵⁾

As of December 2020, there are eight missions from around the world actively orbiting Mars or exploring its surface. The missions are from the U.S., European Union, Russia and India.⁶⁾

On Jan 12, 2021, NASA's Curiosity rover passed 3,000 Martian days of work on the surface of Mars. It managed to travel over 23km (as of Jul 2020). It's powered by a nuclear battery and a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), which produces energy from the decay of 11 lb (4.8 kg)of plutonium-238 dioxide. ⁷⁾

Opportunity was a robotic rover that was exploring the surface of Mars surface for 15 years between 2004 and 2018. Its mission was planned for 90 sols (Martian days), but it managed to work 5,352 sols (5,498 Earth days). Opportunity drove 45.16 km, took over 224,000 photographs, made many important findings, including evidence of salty water deep enough to alter rocks. ⁸⁾