Mars Nearing Earth In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped this photo of the red planet 11 hours before its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years. How close? It was a mere 34,648,840 miles ...

Why we explore Mars—and what decades of missions have revealed. In the 1960s, humans set out to discover what the red planet has to teach us. Now, NASA is hoping to land the first humans on Mars ...

In just a few days, Mars will come within 36 million miles of Earth, closer than it has been for 15 years. As the red planet nears, we’re looking back at National Geographic’s cartographic ...

This story appears in the March 2021 issue of National Geographic magazine. Jupiter is the king, Uranus is the comedian, Pluto is the underdog. But of all the planetary bodies in our solar system ...

In 2016, National Geographic released this map of Mars, the latest in a centuries-long evolution of our understanding of the planet. Explore an interactive version of the map here.

This story appears in the March 2021 issue of National Geographic magazine. It’s a warm night in mid-October, and I’m winding my way up to the University of Virginia’s McCormick Observatory ...

National Geographic Channel is currently in production on MARS, a global event series set to premiere November 14. Join the journey at MakeMarsHome.com . #CountdownToMars ...

The first footprints on Mars might be those of robots like Valkyrie, being tested by Northeastern University engineers Taskin Padir (right) and Velin Dimitrov. Robots could build a base before ...

The National Geographic Mars multiplatform event includes two books, a television series in its second season, a magazine cover story, a digital virtual-reality experience, an installation in New ...

Underground Lake Found on Mars? Get the Facts. The 12-mile-wide reservoir could solve a Martian mystery—and offer a new target in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.

Life just might exist on Mars after all. The red planet may have once been home to an abundance of microbes. New studies suggest it's possible that some hardy microbes managed to survive ...

National Geographic's Mars, which returns for a second season of six episodes starting Monday, would seem to have everything going for it in its bid to be the one Mars drama you should actually watch.