Mars News

March 2, 2025

Top Headlines

Adsorptive Regolith on Mars Soaks Up Water, Researchers Reveal

Feb. 26, 2025 — Researchers are looking underfoot to uncover the mysterious past of Mars: Martian regoliths in the soil. Their water storage capabilities may help us understand the change in water on Mars over ...

Why Is Mars Red? Scientists May Finally Have the Answer

Feb. 25, 2025 — A new study shows a water-rich mineral could explain the planet's color -- and hint at its wetter, more habitable ...

Gulf of Mars: Rover Finds Evidence of 'Vacation-Style' Beaches on Mars

Feb. 24, 2025 — Mars may have once been home to sun-soaked, sandy beaches with gentle, lapping waves according to a new ...

Meteorite Discovery Challenges Long-Held Theories on Earth's Missing Elements

Feb. 5, 2025 — Earliest inner solar system planetesimals shaped the inventory of moderately volatile elements in terrestrial ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:33pm EST

Follow the Water: Searching for a Lunar Oasis

Jan. 28, 2025 — As humankind imagines living off-planet -- on the moon, Mars and beyond -- the question of how to sustain life revolves around the physical necessities of oxygen, food and water. We know there is ...

Explaining Persistent Hydrogen in Mars' Atmosphere

Jan. 28, 2025 — The fact that the cold, dry Mars of today had flowing rivers and lakes several billion years ago has puzzled scientists for decades. Now, researchers think they have a good explanation for a warmer, ...

Scientists Solving Meteorological Mysteries on Mars

Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientists are changing our understanding of climate and weather on Mars and providing critical insights into Earth's atmospheric processes as ...

New Evidence Exists for Hidden Water Reservoirs and Rare Magmas on Ancient Mars

Dec. 19, 2024 — A new study explores how variations in Mars' crustal thickness during its ancient history may have influenced the planet's magmatic evolution and ...

New Paper Examines the Elusive Nature of Liquid Brines on Mars

Dec. 16, 2024 — The combination of low temperature, atmospheric pressure and water vapor pressure on Mars means any liquid water found there would likely freeze, boil or evaporate immediately, making its presence ...

Anthropologists Call for Tracking and Preservation of Human Artifacts on Mars

Dec. 16, 2024 — Anthropologists argue physical artifacts of human exploration on Mars deserve cataloging, preservation and care in order to chronicle humanity's ...

Mars' Infamous Dust Storms Can Engulf the Entire Planet: A New Study Examines How

Dec. 9, 2024 — Dust storms on Mars could one day pose dangers to human astronauts, damaging equipment and burying solar panels. New research gets closer to ...

Ancient Hot Water on Mars Points to Habitable Past

Nov. 22, 2024 — New research has uncovered what may be the oldest direct evidence of ancient hot water activity on Mars, revealing the planet may have been habitable at some point in its ...

New Research Explores Volcanic Caves, Advancing the Search for Life on Mars

Nov. 18, 2024 — Through the intricate study of lava tubes -- caves formed following volcanic eruptions when lava cools down -- an international team of researchers has uncovered clues about Earth's ancient ...

Meteorite Contains Evidence of Liquid Water on Mars 742 Million Years Ago

Nov. 13, 2024 — An asteroid struck Mars 11 million years ago and sent pieces of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these chunks of Mars eventually crashed into the Earth and is one of the few meteorites ...

Off-the-Shelf Thermoelectric Generators Can Upgrade CO2 Into Chemicals: The Combination Could Help Us Colonize Mars

Nov. 7, 2024 — Readily available thermoelectric generators operating under modest temperature differences can power CO2 conversion, according to a proof-of-concept study by chemists. The findings open up the ...

Simulated Mission to Mars: Survey of Lichen Species

Oct. 15, 2024 — A collection-based survey of lichen species at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA and Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in Nunavut, Canada was conducted as part of the Mars-160 ...

New Insights Into How Mars Became Uninhabitable

Oct. 7, 2024 — NASA's Curiosity rover, currently exploring Gale crater on Mars, is providing new details about how the ancient Martian climate went from potentially suitable for life -- with evidence for ...

Mars' Missing Atmosphere Could Be Hiding in Plain Sight

Sep. 25, 2024 — New research suggests Mars' missing atmosphere -- which dramatically diminished 3.5 billion years ago -- could be locked in the planet's clay-covered crust. Water on Mars could have set off ...

Organic Matter on Mars Was Formed from Atmospheric Formaldehyde

Sep. 19, 2024 — Researchers have developed a Martian atmospheric evolution model to propose a new theory about Mars's ...

Rocks Collected on Mars Hold Key to Water and Perhaps Life on the Planet: Bring Them Back to Earth

Aug. 14, 2024 — Between July and November of 2022, NASA's Perseverance rover collected seven samples of sediment from an ancient alluvial fan in Jezero crater. While onboard analysis gave researchers some ...

Rocks from Mars' Jezero Crater, Which Likely Predate Life on Earth, Contain Signs of Water

Aug. 14, 2024 — Scientists report that rock samples from Mars' Jezero Crater contain minerals that are typically formed in water. While the presence of organic matter is inconclusive, the rocks could be ...

Measuring Martian Winds With Sound

Aug. 13, 2024 — Martian landers have been able capture measurements of wind speeds -- some gauging the cooling rate of heated materials when winds blow over them, others using cameras to image 'tell-tales' ...

Scientists Find Oceans of Water on Mars: It's Just Too Deep to Tap

Aug. 12, 2024 — Quakes and meteor impacts on Mars generate seismic waves that can help map the interior. A new study analyzed seismic waves detected by the Insight lander and concludes that 11-20 kilometers beneath ...

Scientists Lay out Revolutionary Method to Warm Mars

Aug. 7, 2024 — Ever since we learned that the surface of planet Mars is cold and dead, people have wondered if there is a way to make it friendlier to life. The newly proposed method is over 5,000 times more ...

Expiring Medications Could Pose Challenge on Long Space Missions

July 23, 2024 — A new study shows that over half of the medicines stocked in space -- staples such as pain relievers, antibiotics, allergy medicines, and sleep aids -- would expire before astronauts could return to ...

Mars Likely Had Cold and Icy Past, New Study Finds

July 10, 2024 — The question of whether Mars ever supported life has captivated the imagination of scientists and the public for decades. Central to the discovery is gaining insight into the past climate of ...

Organic Material from Mars Reveals the Likely Origin of Life's Building Blocks

July 1, 2024 — Two samples from Mars together deliver clear evidence of the origin of Martian organic material. The study presents solid evidence for a prediction made over a decade ago that could be key to ...

This Desert Moss Has the Potential to Grow on Mars

June 30, 2024 — The desert moss Syntrichia caninervis is a promising candidate for Mars colonization thanks to its extreme ability to tolerate harsh conditions lethal to most life forms. The moss is well known for ...

New Class of Mars Quakes Reveals Daily Meteorite Strikes

June 28, 2024 — An international team of researchers combine orbital imagery with seismological data from NASA's Mars InSight lander to derive a new impact rate for meteorite strikes on Mars. Seismology also ...

Marsquakes May Help Reveal Whether Liquid Water Exists Underground on Red Planet

June 25, 2024 — If liquid water exists today on Mars, it may be too deep underground to detect with traditional methods used on Earth. But listening to earthquakes that occur on Mars -- or marsquakes -- could offer ...

In a Significant First, Researchers Detect Water Frost on Solar System's Tallest Volcanoes

June 10, 2024 — An international team of planetary scientists has detected patches of water frost sitting atop the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars, which are not only the tallest volcanic mountains on the Red Planet but ...

Lake Under Mars Ice Cap Unlikely

June 7, 2024 — Researchers have provided a simple and comprehensive -- if less dramatic -- explanation for bright radar reflections initially interpreted as liquid water beneath the ice cap on Mars' south ...

Martian Meteorites Deliver a Trove of Information on Red Planet's Structure

May 31, 2024 — Mars has a distinct structure in its mantle and crust with discernible reservoirs, and this is known thanks to meteorites that scientists have analyzed. These results are important for understanding ...

Earth-Like Environment Likely on Ancient Mars

May 1, 2024 — A research team using the ChemCam instrument onboard NASA's Curiosity rover discovered higher-than-usual amounts of manganese in lakebed rocks within Gale Crater on Mars, which indicates that ...