For the first time, scientists have mapped vast, continent-scale river drainage systems on Mars — ancient networks that may also be among the most promising places to search for signs of past life.

Ancient Mars is coming into sharper focus as a planet laced with rivers, deltas and vast drainage basins, and that new map of its watery past is rapidly reshaping where scientists intend to look for ...

Long before Mars turned into the frozen desert you see today, water shaped its surface in dramatic ways. Rivers cut through highlands, lakes pooled inside craters, and floods tore open canyon walls.

Billions of years ago, it rained on Mars. The water collected in valleys and rivers, filled and spilled over the rims of craters, and was funneled into canyons, perhaps even making its way to a large ...

How did life begin on Earth? While scientists have theories, they don't yet fully understand the precise chemical steps that led to biology, or when ...

As an astronomer studying the universe beyond Earth, I’m fond of “outside the box” views almost by default. But one of my favorites is whenever a spacecraft takes a snapshot of our home world and the ...

Thanks to Einstein’s relativity, time flows differently on Mars than on Earth. NIST scientists have now nailed down the ...

On 13 November, the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamic Explorers (EscaPADE) mission launched to space on the New Glenn rocket provided by Blue Origin.