The more scientists study the Red Planet, the more they find unusual objects and patterns scattered across Mars' surface. As one of Earth's closest neighbors in space, Mars has long captivated humans with the prospect of alien life located just a short rocket trip away.

The recent United States government's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that was recently signed into law has good news for the future of crewed spaceflight — but at the same time, Trump's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year nearly annihilates NASA science missions.

NASA’s Opportunity rover became one of the most successful interplanetary missions in human history. However, that incredible journey came to a dramatic end in 2019 after 15 years of record-breaking work on Mars.

Mariner 4, built by JPL in Pasadena, took the images on July 14, 1965. One of the mission's leaders reflects on decades of studying the Red Planet.

A host of scientific investigations await the crew of NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 mission during their long-duration expedition aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke,

"Though the House and Senate have much still to debate on full-year appropriations, this much is clear: Congress is rejecting the full extent of the unprecedented, unstrategic, and wasteful cuts to NASA and NASA science proposed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget," the Planetary Society said in a statement.

Sixty years ago today, NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft took the first up-close images of Mars, changing humanity's understanding of the Red Planet. The spacecraft was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Now, NASA researchers have managed to recreate these structures in a lab for the first time, demonstrating how they form in the process. Spiders on Mars From the get-go, scientists had a strong suspicion that these “spiders” are linked to carbon ice.