Aging is inevitable as it is one of the characteristics of living things. The environment where people live affects how fast or slow they will age. Particular reference will be given to the availability of unpolluted air, clean water, and healthy atmospheric conditions. Having these in mind, we have to wonder, do you age slower on Mars?
You don’t age slower on Mars though it seems so because a year on Earth is two years in Mars due to how it orbits around the sun.
In the rest of this article, we will provide you with interesting information about this topic, so sit tight!
The planet Mars is the second-smallest planet in the solar system and the 4th planet from the sun. Mars’s orange-reddish color is due to the iron oxide or rust particles that are present within the soil. It has the tallest mountain in the solar system. The sky during a Martian day is pinkish-red.
Mars is about 10 times less massive than Earth and Venus, but it has almost twice the size of Mercury. The average distance of Mars from the sun is 141,633,260 miles (227,936,640 km), which is 1.524 times that of earth.
How long is a day on Mars compared to Earth?
Mars has a very comparable daily cycle as the earth. The planet’s sidereal day is 24 hours, 37 minutes, and 22 seconds while its solar day (which is also called “Sol”) is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds. So it means a Martian day is about 40 minutes longer when compared to a day on earth and a solar day is about 39 minutes longer than that of earth.
How do we describe the length of a day?
We know that the earth rotates on its axis in an anticlockwise direction and a day starts with the sun rising from the east and then it eventually sets on the west, taking us into the night and another starts with the sun rising again. The length of the day on a planet in the solar system can be described in two ways – a solar day and a sidereal day.
Sidereal day
A sidereal day is the length of time a planet will take for it to rotate on its axis once so that the stars appear in the same location in space. Earth’s sidereal day is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds. We are all more familiar with the idea of a solar day than a sidereal day that astronomers use. It helps astronomers know where to point their telescope without thinking about the position of the earth in its orbit.
Solar day
A solar day is a time a planet will take for it to rotate on its axis once so that the sun appears in the same location in the sky. An average solar day on earth is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds (approximately 24 hours).
A solar day is longer than a sidereal day on mars (it’s the same on earth). This is because Mars is also spinning on its axis while also orbiting around the sun in an anti-clockwise direction. This means that it takes longer each day for the sun to appear in the same position relative to the stars than it did on the previous day.
The eccentric (not a perfect circle) orbit of the earth around the sun results in a speed that is not constant. All these will give us a solar day that varies daily which eventually allows us to consider an average 24-hour solar day.
Some planets have very short days like Jupiter. The length of a sidereal day in Jupiter is 9 hours, 55 minutes, and 30 seconds. Some other planets have longer days like Venus which has a sidereal day of 243 days and 36 minutes. However, Venus has a shorter solar day (116 days and 18 hours) due to its clockwise direction.
How long is a year on Mars compared to Earth?
The earth revolves completely in 365 days which is one year on earth – as it rotates around the speed of 67,000 miles per hour. Mars makes a full resolution in 687 days (one Mars year) because it is slower compared to the Earth and father apart from the sun.
Would you age slower on Mars?
That’s a tricky question. Mars is quite far from the sun if you compare it to the earth which means a Martian year is longer -687 years. That’s about 2 years less than Earth years. So, it means you won’t age any quicker on Mars but instead you will be celebrating your birthday approximately every 2 years since we calculate birthdays based on the planet’s orbit around the sun. That means that if you are about 25 years of age on Earth, you will barely be even a teenager on Mars.
Does Mars have seasons?
The simple answer is yes, but it’s a bit more complex than that.
Mars has two different types of seasons that interact throughout a Martian year. It has the familiar winter, autumn, spring, and summer which is caused by a 25-degrees tilt (almost close to the Earth’s 23 degrees tilt).
The planet has two additional seasons – aphelion and perihelion due to its high elliptical orbit. The Earth’s orbit is almost circular which makes the distance from the sun mostly stable. Mar’s orbit is far more elongated – about 5 times that of Earth, making it closer to the sun at some times of the year than at other years.
During perihelion, Mars gets most of its heat energy (about 40%) than at other seasons. It is because the sun is closer to Mars during perihelion. During aphelion, the planet is cooler than in any other season.
Now you know how long a year and day last on Mars. You also know that seasons exist within the planet and also how you will age if you ever get there.
Even though we know the answers to these questions, there are still a lot of things we don’t know about Mars such as whether a human can permanently live there. With the current rate of advancement in science, we would have the answers to those kinds of questions soon and maybe one day we will eventually live permanently on Mars.