Mars launch season has arrived, and it brings the first space exploration mission from the Arab world, China’s first Mars landing, and the first powered flight on another planet.
Mars
Posted inFeatures
Mars 2020 Team Using Australian Rocks in Search for Life on Mars
Scientists are investigating evidence of ancient terrestrial microbes preserved in Australia as well as mineral maps derived from Mars orbiter data to shed light on how to search for life on Mars.
Posted inNews
Desert Microbes Mine for Water
Scientists studying a cyanobacterium isolated from rock samples in the Atacama Desert found out how the bacteria extract water to live. Their results may help identify likely sites for life on Mars.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Lifting the Veil on Martian Dust Storms
A special collection in JGR Planets presents insights from a long-awaited global dust storm on Mars in 2018 that was closely scrutinized by five orbiting and two landed spacecraft.
Posted inNews
A Longer-Lived Magnetic Field for Mars
New research indicates Mars’s dynamo may have been active for millions of years longer than previously thought.
Posted inNews
Scientists Float a New Theory on the Medusae Fossae Formation
Pumice-like rafts of lightweight material could have carried volcanic debris across an ancient Martian ocean to build one of the most puzzling features on the Red Planet.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Fast Did an Ancient Martian Delta Form?
Terrestrial meander migration rates are used to estimate a formation timescale of decades for Jezero delta on Mars.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Mars’s Magnetic Field Let Its Atmosphere Slip Away
A planet’s magnetic field usually protects its atmosphere from being blown away by its star. But new research suggests Mars’s weak magnetic field may have helped its atmosphere escape.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mapping Martian Dunes from Orbit
New research shows how fast the sands shift on the Red Planet and how useful imagery from different orbiting cameras can be in studies of Mars’s dunes.
Posted inNews
How Scientists Search for Martian Methane
Finding subsurface reserves of methane on Mars could revolutionize human space travel, but it won’t be an easy hunt.