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A Mars Express view of Thyles Rupes near the south pole reveals kilometre-high cliffs, frozen dunes and a landscape shaped by cooling, dust and frost. Mars is usually pictured in…
A habitable world is not the same as a living world. Here is how scientists define biosignatures, test false positives and build a case for life beyond Earth.
University of Bern simulations and ESA Hera observations point to one non-destructive asteroid impact as the source of Deimos’ southern depression and dusty surface.
Popular images of the asteroid belt usually show a spacecraft weaving through a crowded field of tumbling rocks. The real region between Mars and Jupiter is far less dramatic—and more…
NASA’s Curiosity rover has climbed roughly a kilometre up Mount Sharp, the 5-kilometre-high mountain rising from the floor of Gale Crater. The milestone is more than a distance record. Each…
Mars looks cold from orbit, but a new study suggests that the rock beneath its south polar region may still be carrying a surprising amount of heat. By analysing tiny…
NASA’s Curiosity rover has climbed onto a feature in Gale Crater that may mark a pause—and a change—in the story written by Martian rocks. The mission team calls it a…
Mars looks red because its surface dust contains oxidised iron. The same broad chemical idea explains rust on Earth: iron reacts with oxygen or other oxidising agents and forms minerals…
The rover did not find gemstones scattered across Mars. It detected tiny grains of corundum—the mineral that forms rubies and sapphires—inside pale, silica-rich rocks whose chemistry is difficult to explain.
Mars can glow in ultraviolet light when energetic particles strike its upper atmosphere. The planet does not have Earth’s global magnetic field, so scientists have had to work out how…
From the rim of Jezero Crater, Earth is only a bright point in the sky. On July 2, NASA’s Perseverance rover watched that point vanish behind Phobos, Mars’ larger moon,…
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, NASA went through its golden age. Robotic devices were sent to nearby planets and men were flying to the Moon! The agency had…
Thanks to the MARSIS radar of the ESA Mars Express orbiter, a team led by Sebastian Emanuel Lauro and Elena Pettinelli of the University of Roma Tre has confirmed the…
Since it landed on the red planet in November 2018, NASA’s InSight mission has detected more than one thousand Marsquakes successfully. The lander has offered us unprecedented insight into Mars.…
Exploring Mars has always been of great importance to humans. Not only because Mars is relatively close to Earth, but because the red planet is eerily similar to our own…
Humankind is on the verge of exploring the entire solar system, paving the way for colonization. Mars was the first planet Earth attempted to explore in our journey to expand…
A three-sided, pyramid-like mound in the Martian canyon region known as Candor Chasma has circulated online as supposed evidence of extraterrestrial architecture. The feature appears in orbital images as a…