Mars Exploration Program

Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the Red Planet to date. The finding, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests prebiotic chemistry may have advanced further on Mars than previously observed.

Posted March 24, 2025

Curiosity (Rover)

Goddard Space Flight Center

Mars

Mars Exploration Program

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Missions

NASA Directorates

Planetary Science Division

Science Mission Directorate

The Solar System

Why is Methane Seeping on Mars? NASA Scientists Have New Ideas

The most surprising revelation from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover — that methane is seeping from the surface of Gale Crater — has scientists scratching their heads. Living creatures produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists haven’t found convincing signs of current or ancient life on Mars, and thus didn’t expect to find methane […]

Posted April 22, 2024

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Curiosity (Rover)

Mars

Mars Exploration Program

NASA’s Curiosity Searches for New Clues About Mars’ Ancient Water

The rover has arrived at an area that may show evidence liquid water flowed on this part of Mars for much longer than previously thought. NASA’s Curiosity rover has begun exploring a new region of Mars, one that could reveal more about when liquid water disappeared once and for all from the Red Planet’s surface. […]

Posted March 29, 2024

Mars

Mars Exploration Program

Mars Moons

Martian Moon Exploration (MMX)

Phobos

Planetary Science Division

Science Mission Directorate

NASA Delivers Science Instrument to JAXA’s Martian Moons Mission

On March 14, NASA delivered its gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer instrument to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) for integration onto JAXA’s MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission spacecraft and final system-level testing. NASA’s Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma Ray and Neutrons (MEGANE) instrument, developed by the Johns Hopkins Appli

Posted March 15, 2024

Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mars

Mars Exploration Program

Opportunity (Rover)

Spirit (Rover)

20 Years After Landing: How NASA’s Twin Rovers Changed Mars Science

This month marks the 20th anniversary of Spirit and Opportunity’s landing on Mars, part of a mission whose legacy will extend far into the future. In January 2004, twin NASA rovers named Spirit and Opportunity touched down on opposite sides of Mars, kicking off a new era of interplanetary robotic exploration. They arrived in dramatic […]

Posted January 17, 2024

Mars

Mars Exploration Program

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

A Bear on Mars?

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured this bit of ursine pareidolia on Dec. 12, 2022. While it resembles a bear we might see on Earth, this is actually a hill on Mars with a peculiar shape. A V-shaped collapse structure makes the nose, two craters form the eyes, and a circular fracture pattern shapes the […]

Posted October 5, 2023