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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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 last updated

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.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard is seen illuminated by spotlights on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41, Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Watch live: NASA launches Mars Perseverance rover to the Red Planet

By Jeanna Bryner last updated

You can watch the historic NASA launch of the Mars 2020 mission here on Live Science.

A member of the Mars 2020 Science Team looks at the calibration target that will be sent on the Mars rover, Perseverance, including SaU 008.

A Martian meteorite is going home, in NASA's Perseverance mission launch

By Mindy Weisberger last updated

London's Natural History Museum is sending a piece of a Martian meteorite back to the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover.

Artist's illustration of the European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter detecting the green glow of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. This emission, spotted on the dayside of Mars, is similar to the night glow seen around Earth’s atmosphere from space.

Weird green glow spotted in atmosphere of Mars

By Mike Wall published

Europe's Trace Gas Orbiter spotted an emerald glow in Mars' wispy atmosphere, marking the first time the phenomenon has been spotted on a world beyond Earth.

An image taken on June 3, 2020, shows the arm of the InSight lander gently pushing the heat probe into Mars.

The 'mole' on Mars is finally underground after a push from NASA's InSight lander

By Meghan Bartels last updated

There's a light at the end of the tunnel for the first mole to burrow into the surface of Mars, scientists hope.

Mars' core has long thought to be comprised of iron-sulfur.

New Marsquake study could shatter theories on how Mars was born

By Gemma Lavender published

Tantalizing details about Mars' seismic activity have been revealed for the very first time.

An image shows aerial views of a pit crater chain hiding a lava tube in New Mexico (top) and a similar formation on Mars (bottom).

These lava tubes could be the safest place for explorers to live on Mars

By Rafi Letzter published

The Martian surface is a radiation hot zone. But ancient lava tubes might offer explorers safety from the cosmic bombardment

An image of Mars showing the epicenters of two marsquakes detected by the Mars InSight lander, which is about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west of the quakes.

What can the coronavirus outbreak teach us about bringing Mars samples back to Earth?

By Leonard David published

A new virus called SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that has caused an outbreak of a disease called COVID-19. But what does that have to do with Mars?

President Donald Trump speaks during his State of the Union address on Feb. 4, 2020.

Trump touts Space Force in State of the Union address

By Mike Wall published

Space got a couple of shout-outs in President Trump's State of the Union address last night (Feb. 4).

The annotated area in this animation of the Red Planet is where NASA spacecraft have found near-surface water ice that would be easy for astronauts to dig up.

The Decade of Mars: How the 2020s May Be a New Era of Red Planet Exploration

By Mike Wall published

The 2010s saw big advances in Mars exploration, but the new decade may bring even more exciting Red Planet news.

The annotated area in this animation of the Red Planet is where NASA spacecraft have found near-surface water ice that would be easy for astronauts to dig up.

NASA's 'Treasure Map' of Water Ice on Mars Shows Where Humans Should Land

By Elizabeth Howell published

NASA's wish to follow the water on Mars just got a helping hand.

A solar wind proton approaches Mars at high speed; it steals an electron from an escaped Martian hydrogen atom and passes through a magnetic field surrounding Mars. The now-neutral atom then enters the planet's atmosphere and collides with gas molecules, which causes the atom to emit ultraviolet light.

On Mars, Auroras Glow All Summer Long in UV Light

By Mindy Weisberger last updated

During summer in Mars' southern hemisphere, proton auroras occur nearly every day.

A data visualization generated by a supercomputer shows clouds growing and fading over a Martian day.

Watch Clouds on Mars Drift by in Supercomputer Simulations

By Meghan Bartels published

Weather models are a daily staple of life on Earth, but they can go interplanetary as well, sometimes with a boost from Earth's most sophisticated computers.

A tardigrade in space.

Tardigrade DNA Added to Human Cells Could Help Us Survive on Mars, Scientist Says

By Chelsea Gohd last updated

Will we one day combine tardigrade DNA with our cells to go to Mars?

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover sits in the Marias Pass area of lower Mount Sharp.

There's a Mysterious Source of Oxygen in Mars' Atmosphere, and No One Can Explain It

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

There's something strange about the oxygen in the atmosphere above Mars' Gale Crater.

A photo of Mars taken by the Curiosity rover shows a bleak landscape of hills and hazy crater mountains.

The Curiosity Rover Just Took a Very Emo Photo of Its Rocky Martian Prison

By Brandon Specktor published

Curiosity is the last functioning rover on Mars, and its lonely mission has taken the robot to a steep mountain in the middle of a vast crater.

An artist's depiction of a Mars sample-return mission.

Here's How NASA Might Bring Home Pieces of Mars (In a Darth Vader Helmet)

By Meghan Bartels published

Scientists studying Mars have wanted pieces of the Red Planet here on Earth for decades, and they are finally getting their shot at designing a mission to acquire such souvenirs.

In this image from Oct. 26, 2019, the InSight Mars lander's heat probe, or "mole," is seen after backing about halfway out of the hole it had burrowed.

The 'Mole' on NASA's Mars Lander Just Popped Out Of Its Hole (and That's Not Good)

By Mike Wall published

The mole's up-and-down Mars saga has taken yet another turn.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says the first astronaut to walk on Mars could be a woman.

The 1st Human on Mars May Be a Woman, NASA Chief Says

By Hanneke Weitering published

It won't be long before we see the first woman on Mars, and she just might beat the first man there, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Friday (Oct. 18).

Mars in the Northern Hemisphere

6 Reasons Astrobiologists Are Holding Out Hope for Life on Mars

By Isobel Whitcomb published

There are some very good reasons to believe that primitive lifeforms may lurk on the Red Planet.