Why it’s so hard to go to the Sun
It takes 55 times more energy to go to the Sun than it does to go to Mars.
The Sun contains 99.8 percent of the...
Terraforming the Martian atmosphere? Not possible with present-day tech
Science fiction writers have long featured terraforming, the process of creating an Earth-like or habitable environment on another planet, in their stories.
Scientists themselves have...
The crust on Mars seems to be crystallized magma
Mars, strewn with rocks and pocked by craters, may not have an Earth-like continental crust, according to a new study.
Instead, researchers pose an alternative...
Discovery of water on Mars could change the whole game
The search for life on Mars—and the quest to send humans to Mars—just got one step closer.
For the first time, scientists have discovered a...
Mars Express detects liquid water buried under Mars’s south pole
ESA’s Mars Express has used radar signals bounced through underground layers of ice to find evidence of a pond of water buried below the...
Most of the dust on Mars comes from this one spot
The dust that coats much of the surface of Mars mostly comes from a single thousand-kilometer-long geological formation near the Red Planet’s equator, scientists...
Hubble Telescope captures new family photos for Mars and Saturn
In summer 2018 the planets Mars and Saturn are, one after the other, in opposition to Earth.
During this event the planets are relatively close...
Mars’ soil may be too dry to sustain life
Life as we know it needs water to thrive. Even so, we see life persist in the driest environments on Earth.
But how dry is too dry?
At...
Scientists detect a lake of liquid water under the surface of Mars
Providing resolution to a decades-long debate over whether liquid water is present on Mars, researchers using radar to probe the planet's polar ice caps...
Where Martian dust comes from?
The dust that coats much of the surface of Mars originates largely from a single thousand-kilometer-long geological formation near the Red Planet's equator, scientists...