Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Why Mars is red

I always wondered why Mars is red. You know the expression, Mars is the Red Planet. Well, today we find out that the color of Mars is only as deep as the layer of dust which covers the planet. NASA' Mars rover Curiosity dug beneath the surface and found the rock beneath the dust was gray.

But back to the question of why Mars is red. According to this story from the Huffington Post, Mars gets its red color "from a surface layer of dust that has undergone a rusting process, during which iron was oxidized."

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