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Mars

An artists conception of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft observing the aurora on Mars

Cool Finds

Mars Gets a ‘Northern Lights’ Show Too

Earth isn’t the only planet that sees auroras

NASA's Curiosity rover caught this image of its drill just days before a short circuit caused it to shut down.

Trending Today

Mars Rover Is Out of Commission (For Now)

Short circuit halts Curiosity in its tracks

This image of a Martian sunset was captured in 2005.

Cool Finds

Watch the Sunset from Mars

Opportunity rover helps capture a hauntingly blue view of nightfall on the Red Planet

Cool Finds

Impatient Scientists Used Paint-By-Numbers Technique to Create the First Image From Mars

Scientists used raw data to create their first image of the red planet

Artwork depicts the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, which was launched from Earth in June, 2003 carrying the Beagle2 lander. Mars Express continues to function even today.

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Found: One Missing Mars Probe, Still Intact

High-res images of Mars’ surface identify a long-missing probe and suggests that bad luck—rather than human error—caused the loss

Ten years ago this week, the Huygens probe gave scientists a first look at the icy surface beneath the haze of Saturn's moon Titan.

Best Space Photos of the Week

Best Space Photos of the Week: From Solar Flares to Saturn’s Moons

A spitting sun, a well-loved lake and a happy accident on Mars star in this week’s best space images

Scientists crouch with mock-ups of three generations of Mars rovers. Curiosity is the big one. Opportunity and Spirit were based on the medium-sized one on the left. The small one is front was the Sojourner rover.

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NASA’s Opportunity Rover Has Developed Robot Dementia

A problem with Opportunity’s hardware means it only has short-term memory

These images show the planet on the last day of Martian spring in the northern hemisphere (just before summer solstice). The annual north polar carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) cap is rapidly sublimating, revealing the much smaller permanent water ice cap.

New Research

Examining Martian Meteorites, Scientists Think They’ve Found The Red Planet’s Missing Water

Mars may have an underground water reservoir

The Mars Rover Curiosity’s landing site in Gale Crater

New Research

Curiosity Rover’s Mars Crater May Have Cradled Large Lakes

Signs of water on Mars aren’t new, but now scientists think water may have been there for a long time

Curiosity is able to take pictures of itself on Mars using a camera mounted to its robotic arm. This mosaic was made from 55 snapshots taken in October 2012.

An Insider’s Biography of a Celebrity Mars Rover

The chief engineer for Curiosity offers a peek at the NASA rover’s tumultuous rise to stardom in a new tell-all book

Astronaut Mae Jemison in the Spacelab in 1992.

Cool Finds

The Case for Sending Women to Mars

Because women are smaller than men, they’re cheaper to send into space

The Mangalyaan orbiter back when it was still on the ground.

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India’s Space Agency Made It to Mars on the First Try

India’s Mangalyaan orbiter dropped into orbit around Mars last night

An artist's conception of MAVEN in orbit around Mars

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Mars Just Got a New Robotic Explorer

NASA’s MAVEN orbiter dropped into orbit last night

Sorry, rover. Planting a garden will have to wait.

Four Handy Tips for Growing Your Garden on Mars

Is it possible to have a green thumb on the Red Planet? Perhaps, after you’ve mastered a few space gardening tricks

Cool Finds

Imagine Living on Mars In One of These Structures

You could call an acropolis, pyramid or beehive home

Trending Today

The Curiosity Rover Just Turned One Martian Year Old

Mars years are longer than Earth years

Cool Finds

Introverts In Demand for Mars Missions

People who need lots of social stimulation might not be the best fit for long-term missions

Atlas V Launches the New Horizons Mission to Pluto.

Future Is Here Festival

Take a Peek Into the Future’s Present With Our Live Coverage of Smithsonian’s Two-Day Festival

The magazine’s 2nd annual conference brings together experts, authors and visionaries in the fields of science, science fiction and technology.

Yardangs on Mars

Cool Finds

What in the World (Or Off of It) Is a Yardang?

They’re on Mars, they’re beautiful and they have nothing to do with pirates

The new Mars rover, scheduled for 2020, is to be built on roughly the same platform as the Curiosity rover.

Cool Finds

NASA’s Going to Mars in 2020 And Wants to Bring Back Martian Rocks

The next NASA Mars rover, scheduled for 2020, may be the first step in a sample return mission

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