The Red Planet Screensaver 1.0

The Red Planet Screensaver contains a collection of 23 high resolution images of planet Mars.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is known as the Red Planet due to its reddish appearance as seen from Earth. Of all the planets, Mars’s seasons are the most Earth-like, due to the similar tilts of the two planets’ rotational axes. However, the lengths of the Martian seasons are about twice those of Earth’s, as Mars’s greater distance from the sun leads to the Martian year being approximately two Earth years in length.

The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. A terrestrial planet, Mars has a thin atmosphere and surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth. It has the highest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons, and the largest canyon, Valles Marineris. Mars’ rotational period and seasonal cycles are also similar to those of the Earth.