Mars

Find out everything there is to know about Mars and stay updated on the latest Mars news with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and Mars pictures at LiveScience.com. Learn more about this fascinating planet as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about Mars.

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Images of Jezero crater, where Perseverance will touch down on Mars.

Photo tour of Jezero Crater: Here's where Perseverance will land on Mars

By Jeanna Bryner

Here's a look at Mars' Jezero Crater, the gorgeous basin where the Perseverance rover is expected to touch down and look for signs of ancient microbial life.

Development of RSL features at Palikir crater on Mars as viewed by the HiRISE camera on 6 occasions during Mars years 29–30.

Cause of mysterious dark streaks on Mars found

By Chris Ciaccia

Landslides may be causing mysterious dark streaks on the Martian surface, scientists have found.

China's Tianwen-1 Mars mission enters orbit around the Red Planet in this still from a video animation. Tianwen-1, China's first Mars mission, arrived at Mars on Feb. 10, 2021.

China's first Mars mission, Tianwen-1, successfully enters orbit around Red Planet

By Mike Wall

China's first fully homegrown Mars mission, Tianwen-1, arrived in orbit around the Red Planet Wednesday (Feb. 10).

Left: An illustration shows the United Arab Emirates orbiter "Hope." Center: An illustration shows the skycrane lowering NASA's rover Perserverance to the Martian surface. Right: A still shows a Chinese Long March 5 rocket hefting Tianwen-1 into space.

Why Mars is having its busiest two weeks in 47 years

By Rafi Letzter

It's a busy February for Mars, with three probes from three separate space agencies arriving at the red planet over the course of just nine days. Here's why.

Hope mission personnel celebrate the receipt of signal confirming the spacecraft arrived in orbit around Mars on Feb. 9, 2021.

Welcome to Mars! UAE's Hope probe enters orbit around Red Planet.

By Meghan Bartels

After a nail-biting 27 minutes, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) first-ever interplanetary mission has successfully reached orbit around Mars.

The first image of Mars returned by China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft.

China's Tianwen-1 Mars mission snaps its 1st photo of Red Planet

By Andrew Jones

China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft snapped its first image of Mars as the mission makes its final approach; the probe will enter orbit around the Red Planet in less than a week.

An artist's depiction of NASA's Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, storing samples of Martian rocks in tubes for future delivery to Earth. Perseverance will land inside Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance is in the home stretch of its journey to Red Planet

By Mike Wall

The car-size Perseverance rover, which launched on July 30 of last year, is scheduled to land inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater on Feb. 18.

Photo of antarctic mountains near a body of water

Martian mineral, rare on Earth, found locked in Antarctic ice

By Nicoletta Lanese

The mineral likely formed from dust trapped in the ice.

Mars and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos

A mysterious 'wobble' is moving Mars' poles around

By Brandon Specktor

Like a teetering top, Mars refuses to rotate on a straight axis.

There seems to be a network of underground bodies of liquid water at Mars’ south pole.

Mars: Mounting evidence for subglacial lakes, but could they really host life?

By David Rothery

The best place for life on Mars might be more than a kilometre below its surface!

Mars Perseverance - mission steps.

NASA's next Mars rover will land in less than 100 days

By Mike Wall

The life-hunting Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, which launched on July 30, is scheduled to land inside Jezero Crater on the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2021.

The Clavius crater on the moon as seen by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The SOFIA observatory has detected water ice in shadowed regions of this sunlit lunar location.

An asteroid trailing after Mars could actually be the stolen twin of our moon

By Peter Dockrill

A distant asteroid trailing in the gravitational wake of Mars our moon's long-lost twin.

An artist's depiction of Mars covered in water, as it may have been about 4 billion years ago.

4 supersalty lakes may be hiding under the ice cap at Mars' south pole

By Charles Q. Choi

Remnants of water once found on the surface of Mars may be hidden in a handful of small lakes below the Red Planet's south pole, and more could exist, according to new research.

An artist's impression of NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity flying on the Red Planet.

NASA powers up Mars Ingenuity helicopter for the 1st time

By Samantha Mathewson

NASA powered up its Mars helicopter Ingenuity for the first time on Aug. 7 and tested the little craft's electronics.

A prototype rover creeps through a lava tube in Spain’s Canary Island of Lanzarote, part of a training campaign to explore settings on Earth that could be similar to those on the moon and Mars.

Entire cities could fit inside the moon's monstrous lava tubes

By Rafi Letzter

Vast lava tubes pock the surface of the moon and Mars, and could protect explorers from the elements. But first someone needs to explore them.

Researchers have concluded that early Martian landscape probably looked similar to this image of the Devon ice cap in the Canadian Arctic.

Ancient Mars may have been covered in ice sheets

By Meghan Bartels

Early Mars may not have been quite the warm, wet paradise scientists have hoped for — not if the valleys scarring its surface work the same way as their counterparts here on Earth do.

Mars Perseverance - mission steps.

NASA: Mars rover Perseverance in 'safe mode' after launch, but should recover

By Meghan Bartels

NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover entered "safe mode" after a successful launch Thursday (July 30), but should recover, NASA says.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover displaying where its MMRTG would be inserted, between the panels on the right marked by gold tube, before the power system was inserted.

Why NASA's Mars rover Perseverance will use nuclear power to stay warm

By Meghan Bartels

A spacecraft is only as strong as its power source, which is why when NASA was designing its Perseverance Mars rover, the agency turned to radioactive plutonium.

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover launched atop an Atlas V rocket at 7:50 a.m. EDT (4:50 PDT) on July 30.

Liftoff! NASA's Perseverance rover is headed to Mars

By Stephanie Pappas

In February 2021, NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (shown in an artist's concept) will be the two newest explorers on Mars.

Mars Perseverance launches on Thursday. Here's how to watch.

By Stephanie Pappas

NASA's Mars Perseverance launch, set for Thursday, July 30, will send a new rover to the Red Planet to search for ancient habitable environments and microbial life.