Mars – Astronomy Now

Happy New Year, Mars! The Red Planet is turning 39

29 September 2026 Stuart Clark

On 30 September the Red Planet officially begins Mars Year 39. Which is quite an achievement for a world that is actually more than 4.5 billion years old.

Gear up for Mars and Jupiter’s great coming-together

5 August 2024 Mark Armstrong

Mars and Jupiter lie less than a degree apart on the mornings of 14th and 15th August, providing a great spectacle for both visual observers and imagers.

A picture postcard from Mars, courtesy of the Curiosity rover

16 June 2023 Astronomy Now

Applying a bit of artistic license, colour was added to black-and-white Mars panoramas to produce an artistic rendering of the red planet as seen in the morning and afternoon on the slopes of Mount Sharp.

UAE’s ‘Hope’ probe begins close encounters with martian moon Deimos

24 April 2023 Astronomy Now

The United Arab Emirates “Hope” probe is now making repeated close flybys of the martian moon Deimos – and snapping spectacular pictures.

The red planet’s very well placed

18 January 2023 Mark Armstrong

Mars, still relatively fresh from last month’s brilliant opposition, remains the main planetary interest.

Mars comes to opposition and is occulted by the Moon!

5 December 2022 Mark Armstrong

The long-awaited opposition of Mars on 8 December is a great way to put the icing on top of another great observing year.

The layered hills of Mars’ Arabia Terra

8 July 2022 Keith Cooper

These layered hills, seen in this false-colour image of a portion of Arabia Terra on Mars, may possibly have a watery origin.

The long view across Gale crater to the slopes of Mount Sharp

30 June 2022 Keith Cooper

This panorama was taken by the rover’s MastCam – from a ‘clay-bearing unit’ on the flank of Mount Sharp.

Get ready for Jupiter and Mars’ close confrontation

19 May 2022 Mark Armstrong

Keep the diary free towards the end of May to witness another very close conjunction between two of the major planets in the Solar System.

Ingenuity zooms over Mars rover’s discarded parachute and backshell

2 May 2022 Astronomy Now

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter captures intriguing images of the Perseverance rover’s discarded parachute and backshell.