Dried-up rivers on Mars suggest that the planet was wet in the not-too-distant past.
Mars
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Local Heat Source Needed to Form Liquid Water Lake on Mars
Thermal modeling suggests that active magmatism in the past few hundred thousand years could account for the presence of a large lake previously hypothesized beneath the Red Planet’s southern ice cap.
Posted inNews
Opportunity Rover Mission Complete
The rover explored Mars’s surface for nearly 15 years and discovered ample evidence of the planet’s wet history.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Hints About How Martian Moons Formed
A new study finds that Phobos includes chunks of Martian crust.
Posted inNews
Future Mars Rover Named for DNA Pioneer Rosalind Franklin
The rover will explore a once water rich region on Mars’s surface and search for evidence of current and past life.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Researchers Bring Early Martian Water Chemistry to Life
Lab experiments constrain conditions necessary for a key mineral to have formed in ancient lagoons and a crater lake.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Thermal Signature of Martian River Deposits Suggests Cementation
Are there indications of extended aqueous processes beyond the period of widespread fluvial activity on Mars?
Posted inScience Updates
Updates on Understanding Mars’s Recent and Present-Day Climate
Mars Workshop on Amazonian and Present-day Climate; Lakewood, Colorado, 18–22 June 2018
Posted inEditors' Vox
Revisiting Enigmatic Martian Slope Streaks
Slope streaks of different sizes and shapes are a common feature on the surface of Mars, but scientists disagree about the mechanisms for their formation and development.
Posted inOpinions
The Mars Anthropocene
The idea of sending people to Mars has captured the public imagination, but have we fully considered how our presence will alter the planet?