Question 1: the correct answer is Mars. Did you get it right? Score 1 point.
Question 2 of 10
Which is the largest planet in the Solar System?
Why, in question 1: Which planet is known as the red planet?
The answer is Mars. The colour comes from iron oxide, rust, which covers the dust and rocks on the surface. Seen from Earth, Mars has a reddish tone that is easy to recognise in the sky.
A cold and dry planet
Mars has about half the diameter of Earth and a very thin atmosphere, made almost entirely of carbon dioxide. The average temperature is well below zero.
But the planet was once different. Valleys, dry riverbeds and minerals that only form in water show that, billions of years ago, there was liquid water on the surface.
Today, the water that remains is mostly frozen, in the polar ice caps and beneath the soil. Robots such as Curiosity and Perseverance analyse rocks in search of signs that the planet once had microscopic life.
Mars has two small, irregular moons, Phobos and Deimos, about 22 and 12 kilometres in diameter. Their names come from Greek mythology and mean fear and terror.
