(Natural News) Researchers from Italy have discovered strong evidence of hypersaline lakes beneath the south pole of Mars, raising the possibility that Martian life may be swimming in briny waters. In their study, published in Nature Astronomy, the researchers detected a few anomalous areas beneath the Martian south pole using the radar instrument aboard the European Space Agency‘s Mars Express orbiter. Analysis of […]

(Natural News) A recent study published in the journal Science Advances suggests that water may have emerged naturally on rocky planets instead of originating from asteroids or comets. Researchers from France, Denmark and Japan studied a meteorite from Mars nearly as old as the solar system. Based on the rock fragments that constitute the meteorite, the researchers found […]

(Natural News) A study published in Scientific Reports suggests that Mars was likely habitable for in the past and may even be able to host life to this day. An international team of researchers found a diverse community of microbial life a foot below the Atacama desert in South America. The desert is known as the driest non-polar region on Earth […]

(Natural News) The key to successfully terraforming the Red Planet may lie in some terrestrial microbes. According to microbiologist Jose Lopez and his colleagues W. Raquel Peixoto and Alexandre Rosado, microbes from Earth may be able to jumpstart the creation of a habitable environment on Mars, the same way early microbes kickstarted the creation of […]

(Natural News) In Andy Weir’s science fiction novel turned Hollywood blockbuster “The Martian,” lead character Mark Watney survives on Mars by using his botany skills to grow a small farm in his habitat. While this concept of growing plants on Mars may seem like pure science fiction now, real-life botanists want to make it a reality. At […]

(Natural News) NASA has captured what appears to be a new 50-foot wide impact crater on the surface of Mars. Onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a spacecraft circling and taking photographs of the Red Planet, NASA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument – a 143-pound camera – snapped a picture of a new crater, which […]

(Natural News) Scientists looking for signs of life on Mars may need to take a deep dive first – literally. According to a study published in Frontiers in Earth Science, the upcoming Mars expeditions by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) – both of which have the specific […]

(Natural News) Scientists may have found a method for generating oxygen that could be used for future explorations on Mars. Researchers from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena discovered a way to generate molecular oxygen – two oxygen atoms needed to form breathable air – in outer space. The idea came from observing how comets produced oxygen in […]

(Natural News) Scientists may have discovered what happened to the water on Mars. Water vapor may have been dumped at the planet’s poles or escaped into space. A partnership between researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in Russia and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany discovered that the Red Planet has […]

(Natural News) Mars might be a dry world now, but researchers recently described a different landscape more than a billion years ago. Back then, the Red Planet produced mighty waterways that dwarfed the Amazon River, the broadest body of water on Earth today. Furthermore, the ancient Martian rivers might have lasted much longer than expected. […]