Which planet is known as the Red Planet?

• A. Venus
• B. Jupiter
• C. Mars
• D. Mercury

Answer: (C)

The color you see is driven by what the planet’s surface is made of and how its atmosphere scatters light. Mars has a surface coated with iron oxide, the same stuff that rusts on metal. This dust gives the landscape a reddish-orange tone, and when sunlight reflects off that dusty, iron-rich surface, the planet appears red from afar. Other planets don’t share that same iron oxide-rich dust signature—Venus is famed for thick cloud cover, Mercury is a rocky, gray-brown world, and Jupiter is a huge gas giant with different colored bands—so they don’t exhibit the distinctive red hue of Mars.