life on mars
Mars Once had Enough Water for a Planet-Wide Ocean 300 Meters Deep
New research has shown that Mars may have been covered in a worldwide ocean when Earth was still covered in…
Will Mars finally answer, ‘Are we alone?’
We recently examined how and why the planet Venus could answer the longstanding question: Are we alone? Despite its harsh…
Mars did Have Moving Glaciers, but They Behaved Differently in the Planet's Lower Gravity
New research shows that glaciers on Mars moved very slowly, which could have allowed ancient life there to survive.
Mars Rovers Will Need to Dig Deeper If They Want to Find Evidence of Life
The search for life—even ancient life—on Mars is trickier than we thought. In a recent study published in the journal…
Perseverance Begins the Next Phase of its Mission, Studying an Ancient River Bed on Mars
On February 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance (Percy) Rover successfully landed in the dried-up lakebed known as Jezero Crater on Mars,…
NASA and HeroX are Crowdsourcing the Search for Life on Mars
NASA and HeroX have launched the Mars Spectrometry Challenge, which will reward a total of $30,000 for new ideas on…
Curiosity Sees a Strong Carbon Signature in a Bed of Rocks
Carbon is critical to life, as far as we know. So anytime we detect a strong carbon signature somewhere like…
Remember When Life was Found in a Martian Meteorite? Turns out, it was Just Geology
The Alan Hills meteorite is a part of history to Mars aficionados. It came from Mars and meteorite hunters discovered…
Is That a Fossil on Mars? Non-Biological Deposits can Mimic Organic Structures
There's nothing easy about searching for evidence of life on Mars. Not only do we somehow have to land a…
Perseverance has Collected its First Sample of Mars and Prepared it for Return to Earth… Eventually
It's another first for NASA. In early September, the Perseverance rover successfully used its robotic arm and drill to drill…