MARS

NASA released this week a stunning image produced by combining 817 photographs it was able to capture via the panoramic camera, or Pancam, on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity between Dec. 21 and May 8.

There are snowflakes on Mars. Although they're not the type you can stick out your tongue and lick, as Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have found that the carbon dioxide snow particles are roughly the size of a human red blood cell.

On the heels of the beloved science fiction author's passing this week, his collection of stories takes a ride on the Mars Lander and finds a home on the Red Planet.

Dutch company Mars One has been making the rounds with its dreams of putting on a reality TV show to select astronauts for a one-way journey to the Red Planet. But the company is vague on how people will be transported to and live on Mars.

In what turned out to be a viral sensation on the Internet viewed by over 11 million people in just one week, a YouTube video entitled Isaac's Live Lip-Dub Proposal has warmed the hearts of many. Set to the song Marry You by Bruno Mars, a Portland man named Isaac Lamb enlisted the help of 60 friends to propose to his girlfriend Amy Frankel on Wednesday in an elaborate choreographed dance and lip-syncing routine dubbed as The World's First Live Lip-Dub Proposal.

Mars is full of glass dunes that bode well for the existence of water and even microbial life on the red plant, according to a recent study.

A perfectly rectangular structure was discovered on Mars after amateur space enthusiasts investigated NASA pictures of the Red Planet. Based on the picture, the Mars monolith bears a resemblance to the monoliths left on Earth and the moon in the Stanley Kubrick classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

A Mars rover found life on the red planet in 1976, according to a new study

China's space program remains far behind the U.S. in sophistication and technological advancement, but this summer the People's Republic is expected to carry out another two historic firsts. The summer 2012 mission is predicted to make history by sending China's first female astronaut into space and will be China's first manned space docking.

Is Bruno Mars gay? On Sunday (April Fool's Day), CNN iReport published an article stating that the It Will Rain singer came out of the closet as gay during an interview with a Chicago radio station. However, Mars' rep said that the gay rumors are completely fabricated.

The Earth's magnetic field protects against solar winds that would otherwise wipe away the atmosphere from our planet, researchers announced Thursday.

When and where to watch the Mars opposition, when the Red Planet will be at its closest to Earth in over two years, online, via live stream.

Faced with deep budget cuts, NASA is restructuring its Mars exploration program in order to scrap up funds for a possible robotic mission to the red planet between 2018 and 2020.

NASA's Mars program is in danger of coming to an end due to proposed budget cuts.

Next year, six volunteers will spend four months living on a simulated Mars base for a NASA food study conducted by Cornell University and the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Seismic activity on the red planet bodes well for the existence of life.

Mars, Incorporated is going for healthier.

Mars Inc., the maker of Snickers, M&Ms and Twix has decided that by the end of 2013 they will halt sales of chocolate products over 250 calories. In an effort to improve the nutritional value of their products, the candy bars will be coming down in size. Spokeswoman Marlene Machit said that the act is part of the company's broad-based commitment to health and nutrition.

In a bid to revive the struggling agency, Vladimir Popovkin, head of Roscosmos, has announced a contest to recruit cosmonauts for manned moon missions beginning in 2020.

Russia blamed radiation on Tuesday for a computer glitch that doomed its Mars moon mission, but space industry experts cast doubt on the findings of an investigation into the crash of what was to be Moscow's first deep space mission in two decades.

The Soviet Union’s landing probe, Venus-13, detected the presence of several objects resembling living organisms, on the surface of the planet Venus in 1982, according to research published in the current issue of Solar System Research.