New research by an international team of researchers now argues that a different iron oxide mineral is in fact responsible for the Mars’ color: ferrihydrite.

Analysis of stalagmite samples from caves in southern Morocco has provided new insights into rainfall patterns in the Sahara Desert in the past. Researchers from the University of Oxford and the Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine have discovered that rainfall in the desert increased between 8,700 and 4,300 years ago, which had a major impact on ancient herding societies. The study is available to read in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

High above Earth’s poles, intense electrical currents called electrojets flow through the upper atmosphere when auroras glow in the sky. In March, NASA plans to launch its EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission to learn more about these powerful currents, in the hopes of ultimately mitigating the effects of such space weather for humans on Earth.

A new international study partially funded by NASA on how Mars got its iconic red color adds to evidence that Mars had a cool but wet and potentially habitable climate in its ancient past.

On Wednesday 26 February, a thermal imaging camera built by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics will blast off to the Moon as part of NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission. This aims to map sources of water on the Moon to shed light on the lunar water cycle and to guide future robotic and human missions.

SAN ANTONIO — February 25, 2025 —Four small suitcase-sized spacecraft, designed and built by Southwest Research Institute headquartered in San Antonio, are poised to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California no earlier than Feb. 28. NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, spacecraft is sharing a ride to space with the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory.