mars

Mars looks red because iron in its dust and surface rocks has oxidized into rust-colored minerals. A 2025 study argues the main pigment is ferrihydrite, a water-bearing iron mineral, and that planet-wide winds spread the fine powder that gives Mars its color.

NASA's Viking landers ran the first direct biology tests on Mars. The results were provocative, disputed, and still important.

Phobos and Deimos are Mars's two tiny, mysterious moons. Explore their origin, the doomed orbit of Phobos, and the upcoming MMX sample return.

Olympus Mons on Mars: 21.9 km tall, 600 km base diameter, fed by a stationary hotspot for 4 billion years. Why Mars's gravity and lack of plate tectonics enable giants.

SpaceX Starship is the largest rocket ever built — 121m tall, fully reusable, designed for Mars. How Raptor engines, orbital refueling, and Flight 13 work.

From Sojourner to Perseverance, every Mars rover explained — missions, discoveries, and the race to bring samples back to Earth.

Daily life on Mars: 38% gravity, radiation, blue sunsets, regolith homes, hydroponic food, and the psychology of 22-minute light-lag from Earth.

What would actually happen if Earth's atmosphere disappeared? Temperature swings from +120°C to –170°C, water boiling into space, instant deafness, UV sterilisation, and a very bad day for everything alive.

From Mars rock targeting to exoplanet spectra, AI is helping astrobiologists sort possible signs of life from chemistry that looks alive but is not. Here is what it does, what it has not done, and why the hardest step is still human.

Mars rovers like Perseverance use onboard AI to navigate treacherous terrain, select science targets, and survive a 20-minute communication delay from Earth.

NASA's Curiosity rover detected methane spikes in Mars' atmosphere—evidence of possible microbial life or geological processes that challenge understanding of the Red Planet.

Ingenuity made the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, then flew 72 times instead of five. Here is how it worked, how it ended, and what it taught.