Mars
The tools Perseverance used to spot a potential sign of ancient life
NASA’s search for evidence of past life on Mars just produced an exciting update. On Sept. 10, 2025, a team of scientists published a paper detailing the Perseverance rover’s investigation of a distinctive rock outcrop called Bright Angel on the edge of Mars’ Jezero Crater. This outcrop is notable for its light-toned rocks with striking …
Potential biosignature detected on Mars – What are these traces of life?
As the Perseverance rover traversed an ancient river valley in Mars’ Jezero Crater back in July 2024, it drilled into the surface and extracted a sample from of a unique, striped rock called Chevaya Falls. The rover’s instruments then analyzed the sample, which is called Sapphire Canyon, and surveyed the surrounding rock. When scientists started …
Can humans colonize Mars in the foreseeable future?
“Can we colonize Mars?” — Clara, age 9, Brookline, Massachusetts In all likelihood, the first Martian will be a person, and the red planet will be humanity’s first extraterrestrial colony. For now, two robots called the Curiosity Rover and the Perservance Rover – sent to Mars to find out if the planet can sustain small …
Nuclear rockets are twice as fast – but designing them isn’t easy
NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade – but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip. This relatively long transit time is a result of the use of traditional chemical rocket fuel. An alternative technology to the chemically propelled …
Humanity needs nuclear-powered rockets to explore Mars and beyond
With dreams of Mars on the minds of both NASA and Elon Musk, long-distance crewed missions through space are coming. But you might be surprised to learn that modern rockets don’t go all that much faster than the rockets of the past. There are a lot of reasons that a faster spaceship is a better …
Is Mars really as red as people say it is?
“Is Mars really as red as people say it is?” — Jasmine, age 14, Everson, Washington People from cultures across the world have been looking at Mars since ancient times. Because it appears reddish, it has often been called the red planet. The English name for the planet comes from the Romans, who named it …
Early visions of Mars: 19th-century astronomer used science fiction to imagine the Red Planet
Living in today’s age of ambitious robotic exploration of Mars, with an eventual human mission to the red planet likely to happen one day, it is hard to imagine a time when Mars was a mysterious and unreachable world. And yet, before the invention of the rocket, astronomers who wanted to explore Mars beyond what …
Where does Mars exploration stand a decade removed from ‘The Martian’ release?
Andy Weir’s bestselling story “The Martian” predicts that by 2035 NASA will have landed humans on Mars three times, perfected return-to-Earth flight systems and collaborated with the China National Space Administration. We are now nearly 10 years past the Hollywood adaptation’s 2015 release and 10 years shy of its fictional timeline. At this midpoint, Mars …
Scientists discover ancient buried beach on Mars
In the 1970s, images from the NASA Mariner 9 orbiter revealed water-sculpted surfaces on Mars. This settled the once-controversial question of whether water ever rippled over the red planet. Since then, more and more evidence has emerged that water once played a large role on our planetary neighbour. For example, Martian meteorites record evidence for …
Mars may have once had a carbon cycle more favorable for life
Mars, one of our closest planetary neighbors, has fascinated people for hundreds of years, partly because it is so similar to Earth. It is about the same size, contains similar rocks and minerals, and is not too much farther out from the Sun. Because Mars and Earth share so many features, scientists have long wondered …