Mars: The Red Planet
The expanded guide to the Mars episode, the same calm science, opened up into something you can do together. Each lane has its own big idea, questions, a hands-on experiment, science words, and a printable to keep.
For ages 4–6
The big idea
Mars is the next planet out from the Sun after Earth. It's about half as wide as our planet, and it's made of rock and dust, with tall mountains, deep canyons and wide flat plains.
Mars is called the red planet because its ground is the color of rust. There's iron in the dirt, and over a very, very long time that iron rusted, the way an old iron gate does after years out in the rain.
On Mars, the sky in the daytime is a pale butterscotch color, and the sunset is blue. Tiny bits of dust in the air send the blue light toward you, so a soft blue glow gathers around the setting Sun.
Wonder together
- Mars pulls on you less than Earth does. What would you do first if you could jump that high and float down slowly?
- No rain falls on Mars, so a footprint can stay there for a very long time. Where would you want to leave yours?
- The sunset on Mars is blue. What color would you pick for a sunset, if you could choose?
- A rover named Perseverance is driving on Mars right now. If you could steer it, where would you send it?
- From Mars, our Earth looks like one small bright light. What do you think it would feel like to see your home from so far away?
Let's try it
Layers in a Jar
You'll need
- A clear jar with a lid
- A handful of dirt with some sand and small pebbles in it
- Water
What to do
- Put the dirt, sand and pebbles in the jar until it's about a third full.
- Pour in water until the jar is nearly full, and put the lid on tight.
- Shake the jar gently, then set it down somewhere it won't be bumped.
- Look again in the morning. The heaviest bits sink first and the finest settle last, in layers. A river did the same thing in a crater on Mars, a very long time ago.
Science words
- Mars
- The fourth planet from the Sun, the next one out after Earth. Its ground is the color of rust.
- Rust
- What iron turns into when it slowly mixes with air and water. It's reddish brown, like the ground on Mars.
- Rover
- A robot on wheels that drives around another world, taking pictures and studying rocks.
- Crater
- A big round dip in the ground. One crater on Mars was once filled with a lake.
- Sunset
- When the Sun goes down at the end of the day. On Mars, the glow around the Sun is blue.
Spot it in real life
- On some nights, Mars is up as a small light with a little orange in it. Ask a grown-up to help you find it, a stargazing app can help.
- Look for rust on an old gate, a bike chain or a garden tool. That reddish brown is the same color as the ground on Mars.
- Press your hand into soft sand or mud and look at the print. On Mars, with no rain, a print like that could last a very long time.
- Watch tonight's sunset here. On Mars, the sky near the Sun would be glowing blue instead.
Read this one aloud, slowly
Far away tonight, on the red planet, the dust is settling, and an old riverbed is resting exactly where the water left it, a very long time ago. The sun has set there, with a soft blue glow, and in that sky one small bright light is shining. That light is Earth. That light is home, and you're right here inside it, warm in your bed. Let your breath go slow, and let yourself settle, the way the dust settles on Mars. Rest.
For ages 7–10
The big idea
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, about half as wide as Earth, and its pull is weaker: you'd weigh about a third of what you weigh here. Its red color comes from iron oxide, rust, in very fine dust that the wind lifts high into its thin air. That dust is why the daytime sky looks butterscotch, and why a Martian sunset is blue: the fine particles send blue light mostly forward, so it gathers in a cool glow close to the Sun.
Mars is also a planet of extremes. Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, rises about two and a half times as high as Mount Everest above the plains around it, and it's so wide and gently sloped that climbing it would feel like one endless easy hill. A Martian day, called a sol, lasts about twenty-four hours and forty minutes.
The deepest surprise is water. Billions of years ago, a river flowed into Jezero Crater and slowed, dropping sand and mud in layers, fanned out the way a river delta forms on Earth. Then the water disappeared, but the layers stayed. On Earth, most ground from that time has been worn away or recycled, so Mars keeps a record our own planet lost. The rover Perseverance is exploring that old delta now, sealing rock samples in tubes.
Wonder together
- The same Sun makes orange sunsets on Earth and blue ones on Mars. What does that tell you about where a sunset's color really comes from?
- Layers stay put on Mars but get worn away on Earth. What forces on our planet do the erasing?
- Light from Earth takes about nine minutes to reach Mars when they're close. How would that delay change a conversation with a rover?
- Astronomers now know of more than six thousand planets around other stars. What would you most want to learn about one of them?
- Some rover teams have lived on Mars time, waking forty minutes later each day. What would that do to your week?
Investigate it
Make a Blue Sunset
You'll need
- A tall clear glass or jar of water
- A small splash of milk
- A flashlight (a phone light works)
- A dark room
What to do
- In a dark room, add a small splash of milk to the water and stir. The water should be only slightly cloudy.
- Shine the flashlight through the side of the glass and look at the glass from the side. It may look a little blue.
- Now look through the glass straight toward the light. The light coming through looks yellow or orange.
- Add a little more milk and try again. You've made Earth's sunset colors. On Mars the dust is different and sends blue light forward, so the blue gathers near the Sun instead.
Science words
- Iron oxide
- The chemical name for rust. It colors the dust and rocks on Mars reddish brown.
- Olympus Mons
- The largest volcano in the solar system, on Mars, about two and a half times as high as Mount Everest.
- Sol
- A day on Mars, about twenty-four hours and forty minutes long.
- Delta
- A fan of sand and mud a river drops where it slows down and enters a lake or sea.
- Scattering
- When tiny particles bounce light in different directions. It decides the color of a sky and a sunset.
- Exoplanet
- A planet circling a star other than our Sun. More than six thousand are known so far.
Spot it in real life
- Find Mars in the night sky with a stargazing app. It looks like a steady orange point, and over weeks it drifts against the stars.
- Look up the 2014 Curiosity picture of Earth and the Moon from Mars. Earth is the bright dot, and the Moon is the smaller one beside it.
- Notice layers wherever you can: in a road cut, a riverbank or a cake. Each one is a record of something that happened in order.
- Compare a photo of a sunset on Earth with one taken by a Mars rover. Notice where the blue sits.
Printable
The Bedtime Scientist · Track & write
Mars Field Notes
Challenge: Draw a cross-section of a crater lake: the river flowing in, the layers it dropped, and the water drying up while the layers stay. Then answer: why do the layers stay on Mars when similar ones on Earth get worn away?
Journal: Imagine standing on Mars at sunset and spotting Earth as a small bright light. What would you want to say to the people back home?
Calm science for curious minds, ages 4–104.
Read this one aloud, slowly
So tonight, on Mars, the sun has set with its quiet blue glow, and the layers an old river left are resting exactly where they were laid, billions of years ago. Somewhere on that dusty plain, a rover is still, waiting for morning. And low in that evening sky shines one bright light, brighter than any star there. It's the world you're lying on right now. Two lights, each one in the other's sky. Let the day settle, the way the dust settles. Rest.
Make it a Family Science Night
Tonight's experiment is even better shared. Turn it into a small event, nothing you don't already have, no pressure, just one other family and a calm hour.
The plan
- Pick a night and invite one other family. Send a text, or hand a child the placemat below to deliver.
- Set out the few things the experiment needs.
- Start the episode together, then try the experiment while it's fresh.
- Let the kids lead. Grown-ups just wonder out loud alongside them.
- End calm: dim the lights and read the bedtime tie-back aloud to everyone.
Scan to listenFamily Science Night
Tonight we're exploring
the red planet and its blue sunset.
Scan the code to listen together, then try tonight's experiment.
The grown-up's 60 seconds
Mars is the planet where the story of water is written right on the ground. Its rust-colored dust, its butterscotch sky and its blue sunsets are strange enough, but the quiet surprise is the layers: a crater that was once a lake, holding a record of a river that ran billions of years ago, still lying where it was laid because Mars has nothing like Earth's rain and moving crust to wear it away. The episode ends on one of the most gentle pictures ever taken: Earth and the Moon, two small lights in the Martian evening sky, photographed by a rover in 2014. For a grown-up, it's a reminder that home looks like a point of light from almost anywhere else, and that we are still, all of us, finding out.
Two small things, if you have a minute
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I like your mind. Just the way it wonders.