Planets, Mars | featured news

New images of an ancient crater on Mars look just like a bootprint -- and the high res pics have failed to solve the age-old mystery for planetary scientists. If anything, the high-resolution images of the "Footprint Crater" -- otherwise known as Orcus Patera -- have puzzled Mars-watchers even further as to how the Red Planet was originally scarred with the 240-mile-long depression.

California 7th graders discovered this Martian pit feature at the center of the superimposed red square in this image while participating in a program that enables students to use the camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.

A vast ocean likely covered one-third of the surface of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago, according to a new study. While the notion of a large, ancient ocean on Mars has been repeatedly proposed and challenged over the past two decades, the research provides further support for the idea of a sustained sea on the Red Planet more than 3 billion years ...

If NASA's exploration of Mars were summed up in a bumper sticker, it would read: "Follow the water."...

President Barack Obama predicted Thursday his new space exploration plans would lead American astronauts to Mars and back in his lifetime, a bold forecast relying on rockets and propulsion still to be imagined and built.

A meteorite
the size of a huge watermelon on Mars is revealing new clues to the planet's
environment.

A major component of Europe's ExoMars rover mission is being dropped to contain costs.

Astronomers calculate there is a tiny chance that Mars or Venus might collide with Earth - though not for at least a billion years.

Rocks from Mars could be brought to the UK within the next 20 years, if a bid to host a study facility is successful.

The largest volcano on Mars may hold water and the possibility of life.