It's established Mars was once a planet with surface-level water. So with multiple MARS missions starting next year, the key to seeking out martian life may instead lie in the contents of its 'dust'.
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Articles on Life on Mars
Displaying 1 - 20 of 29 articles
An Israeli spacecraft carrying tardigrades crashed into the moon. Whether they will survive is irrelevant.
The ancient question 'Are we alone?' has graduated from being a philosophical musing to a testable hypothesis. We should be prepared for an answer.
Mars has long captured our imagination, from claims of canals to Martian attacks and now our latest NASA exploration to look inside the red planet.
NASA's InSight Mars lander touches down Nov. 26, part of a careful robotic approach to exploring the red planet. But human exploration of Mars will inevitably introduce Earth life. Are you OK with that?
Elon Musk may be disappointed by recent studies threatening his plans to go to Mars, but planetary scientists are breathing a sigh of relief.
If humans are to live on Mars they will need a stable supply of food. Earth plants are not suited to the Mars climate but we can engineer plants that are.
Researchers have found evidence of a large lake of salty water, buried 1.5 kilometres beneath the southern polar ice cap on Mars. So what does that mean for life on the red planet?
The race may be on to send humans to live on Mars, but is it worth the effort -- and the spend -- when we have our own problems to deal with on Earth.
Clay on early Mars could have formed under hot and steamy conditions, challenging the idea that it was created just like that on Earth.
Planetary protection protocols try to make sure we don't seed places like Mars with life from our planet. An astrobiologist argues they're misguided – especially with human astronauts on the horizon.
Will humans ever live on Mars? Whoever it is to get there first will benefit from the experiences of those who stayed in simulated Martian missions here on Earth.
Even if alien life is never discovered, all is not lost.
We could learn a lot from any mission to send people to Mars, such as whether there's life elsewhere in the universe or even the technology for new household appliances.
One of the best ways to find out the challenges of living on Mars is to simulate living on another planet here on Earth. So what's it like to spend several months living the Martian life?
Life on the land could have started millions of years earlier on Earth than first thought. This could change the way we think about life developing elsewhere in the universe.
What's the best way to find out how people will cope with the journey to Mars and life on another planet? Lock a test crew up for a year in a simulation right here on Earth.
A philosopher argues that now is the time to figure it out, before we make the inevitable discovery of extraterrestrial life.
If we do find life on Mars, it will be difficult to prove that we didn't bring it there from Earth. An insider talks us through what's at stake.
Our panel of experts speculate on which of science's biggest questions could be answered in the coming months.
Top contributors
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Professor in Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
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Associate member of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW
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Professor, Griffith University
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Professor of Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
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Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and Planetary Exploration, University of Stirling
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Professor of Astrobiology, UNSW
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Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University
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Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland
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ARC Laureate Fellow, Curtin University
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Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, University of Birmingham
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Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology, Birkbeck, University of London
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Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University
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Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University
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PhD Student in Geosciences, University of Arizona
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Professor of Physics, Deputy Director (Solar System) at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL
