What drives us to send probes throughout the Solar System and rovers and landers to Mars? It's not cheap, and it's not easy.

Martian lake beds and deltas reveal the Red Planet’s watery past. But many puzzles remain, scientist Bruce Jakosky says.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has unearthed the largest organic molecules ever detected on Mars—possible fragments of fatty ...

From 6000 BC, the Chinese harvested salt crystals from Lake Yungchen which partially dried in the summer sun. Many other ...

Findings about the chemical makeup of cave systems can teach us about life in places humans have yet to reach.

Large soda lakes - those without natural runoff - could have built and sustained extremely high concentrations of phosphorus.

“The law of the sea basically colonized [Pacific peoples’] ocean,” said Frank Murphy, a resident of French Polynesia who ...

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The weirdest ways scientists are mining for critical minerals, ...

A photographer, an airline pilot, a ship’s captain and others reveal where you’ll find the most spectacular, intriguing and ...

Deep below the Earth’s surface, rock and mineral formations lay hidden with a secret brilliance. Under a black light, the chemicals fossilized within shine in brilliant hues of pink, blue and green.

Along with nitrogen and carbon, phosphorus is an essential element for life on Earth. It is a central component of molecules ...

Isotope hydrology helps governments find and understand the source of their water supplies – so they can develop management ...