Mars

Similarities in the upper atmospheres of the three planets may be due to meteoroids' shedding heavy elements as they pass through

NASA's next low-budget planetary mission will land a probe on Mars in 2016 to investigate the Red Planet's inner workings

After engineers run a months-long setup of the Mars Science Laboratory, now parked in a crater, scientists will take the rover on a nearly two-year journey that includes a visit to a six-kilometer-high mountain

The elaborate landing of the $2.5-billion mission went off without apparent incident

The six-wheeled robot is carrying 10 science instruments—and a wealth of high-tech camera gear

Gliese 581 g shot to the top of a list put out by researchers at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo’s Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) after a new study marshaled support for its long-debated existence

The U.S.S.R.'s Venera 4 was the first spacecraft to return data from inside another planet's atmosphere

The MAVEN mission will investigate Mars's upper atmosphere, in an attempt to understand what caused it to disappear

The annual Texas gathering of planetary scientists featured new research from across the solar system, as well as a good deal of anger directed at politicians looking to cut back on planetary exploration

A report from Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, dismisses assertions that mismanagement plagued the Phobos-Grunt mission, but observers remain skeptical of that position

Liquid remains the leading explanation for newly discovered streaks on Martian slopes

Two Congressmen expressed concern that the 2013 budget proposal takes away from NASA's robotic missions to Mars