Mean Radius of Mars

RMars=3,389,500 mR_{\mathrm{Mars}} = 3,389,500\ \text{m}
Value3,389,500 m
StatusMeasured: ± 200 m (0.000059 relative)
SourceNASA planetary fact sheet (volumetric mean radius)
CategoriesAstronomicalsolar-systemplanets
R_mars in every length unit
femtometer3.3895000e+21 fm
picometer3.3895000e+18 pm
nanometer3.3895000e+15 nm
micrometer3,389,500,000,000 μm
millimeter3,389,500,000 mm
centimeter338,950,000 cm
decimeter33,895,000 dm
meter3,389,500 m
kilometer3,389.5 km
inch133,444,880 in
foot11,120,407 ft
yard3,706,802.3 yd
mile2,106.1377 mi
nautical mile1,830.1836 nmi
astronomical unit0.000022657408 AU
light-year3.5827043e-10 ly
parsec1.0984621e-10 pc

Learning zone

Mars is about half Earth's radius and, like Earth, is flattened by rotation — its day is only 40 minutes longer than ours. But the ellipsoid is a poor description of the real surface, because Mars has the most extreme topography of any rocky planet: Olympus Mons rises 22 km above the datum, and the Tharsis bulge lifts a continent-sized region several kilometres, while Hellas basin sinks 7 km below. There is no sea level to reference, so the datum is defined by a chosen mean-pressure surface and a gravity model.

The northern lowlands sit on average 5 km below the southern highlands — the Martian dichotomy, plausibly the scar of an enormous early impact. The mean radius still gives a useful surface area, about 145 million km², almost exactly the land area of Earth.