Mars has shone red in the night sky for as long as humans have gazed up at the cosmos, fascinating people from the ancient Romans to the present day. "The fundamental question of why Mars is red ...

So, we may have to tweak our understanding of Mars's geological history. "Mars is still the red planet. It's just that our understanding of why Mars is red has been transformed," Valantinas says.

Previous research did not detect water in the planet’s iron oxides, leading researchers to believe that the red dust formed in dry conditions, therefore it was likely due to hematite. “Mars is ...

The Red Planet Mars got its iconic colour from a combination of rusting and erosion over its 4.6-billion-year history. Mars was a once wetter place than the dry, barren world we know today.

Mars is easily identifiable in the night sky by its prominent red hue. Thanks to the fleet of spacecraft that have studied the planet over the last decades, we know that this red color is due to ...

– Jasmine, age 14, Everson, Washington People from cultures across the world have been looking at Mars since ancient times. Because it appears reddish, it has often been called the red planet.

Mars has shone red in the night sky for as long as humans have gazed up at the cosmos, fascinating people from the ancient Romans to the present day. "The fundamental question of why Mars is red ...

Mars' Valles Marineris is a huge valley system that runs across the planet's red colored surface. (Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / USGS) This article was originally published at The Conversation.

The planet Mars is seen in an undated NASA image. We now know that the red color is because of iron minerals in the soil rusting, likely ferrihydrite.