Mars

Radar data indicate that the Red Planet’s southern polar ice sheets cover a 20-kilometer-wide body of water.

Researchers also found seasonal variations in atmospheric methane on the planet that may have a geological or biological origin.  

Experiments to cultivate greens on the International Space Station and in simulated Martian environments pave the way for feeding crews during deep space missions.

Giovanni Schiaparelli’s maps of Mars sparked the belief that intelligent life exists on the planet.

Growing evidence points to a once-habitable world—and recent findings suggest that life could exist on Mars today.

High levels of radiation, among other health risks, challenge the future colonization of the Red Planet.

Researchers in a psychology experiment emerge from eight months of isolation in a dome atop a Hawaiian mountaintop.

Researchers confirm that chemicals present in the dust of the Red Planet are highly toxic to bacteria.

Extremophiles can thrive on perchlorates and metabolize carbon monoxide, researchers report.

Microorganisms continually challenge our assumptions of what life can achieve.

NASA’s Curiosity rover finds chemical signatures that point to the possibility of life on Mars.

Kerry Grens updates the latest science news for December 13, 2013

The possibility of Martian life gets a boost from evidence of an ancient freshwater lake.

Crescent, An Empty Land of Plenty, Prophet of Bones, and Equilateral

July 2013's selection of notable quotes

An instrument aboard the spaceship that carried Curiosity to Mars has found that deep space travelers would face worrying levels of radiation.

NASA’s rover has identified clay in its first drilled sample, signaling that the planet once had a wet and hospitable environment.

Tests run on Martian soil samples indicate the presence of organic compounds, but the traces of carbon may or may not have come from once-living things.

NASA scientists are closely watching a dust storm on Mars that threatens to go global and interfere with rovers on the planet’s surface.