Gravity of Mars

The gravity of Mars is a natural phenomenon, due to the law of gravity, or gravitation, by which all things with mass around the planet Mars are brought towards it. It is weaker than Earth's gravity due to the planet's smaller mass. The average gravitational acceleration on Mars is 3.72076 ms−2 (about 38% of that of Earth) and it varies. In general, topography-controlled isostasy drives the short wavelength free-air gravity anomalies. At the same time, convective flow and finite strength of the mantle lead to long-wavelength planetary-scale free-air gravity anomalies over the entire planet. Variation in crustal thickness, magmatic and volcanic activities, impact-induced Moho-uplift, seasonal variation of polar ice caps, atmospheric mass variation and variation of porosity of the crust could also correlate to the lateral variations. Over the years models consisting of an increasing but limited number of spherical harmonics have been produced. Maps produced have included free-air gravity anomaly, Bouguer gravity anomaly, and crustal thickness. In some areas of Mars there is a correlation between gravity anomalies and topography. Given the known topography, higher resolution gravity field can be inferred. Tidal deformation of Mars by the Sun or Phobos can be measured by its gravity. This reveals how stiff the interior is, and shows that the core is partially liquid. The study of surface gravity of Mars can therefore yield information about different features and provide beneficial information for future landings. To understand the gravity of Mars, its gravitational field strength g and gravitational potential U are often measured. Simply, if Mars is assumed to be a static perfectly spherical body of radius RM, provided that there is only one satellite revolving around Mars in a circular orbit and such gravitation interaction is the only force acting in the system, the equation would be where G is the universal constant of gravitation (commonly taken as G = 6.674 × 10−11 m3 kg−1 s−2), M is the mass of Mars (most updated value: 6.