Giant polygons etched across the bottom of Martian craters are evidence of ancient evaporating lakes, say scientists.

Nasa’s Phoenix spacecraft has discovered evidence of past water at its Martian landing site and spotted falling snow for the first time, scientists reported.

MARS could be in for an asteroid hit.

A European spacecraft carried out a close flyby of Mars today, a crucial manoeuvre in its meandering, 10-year voyage through the solar system to make the first soft landing on a comet

Nasa’s Mars rover Opportunity has managed to climb up and out of the crater that it explored for nearly two months, overcoming a slippery slope that left the vehicle spinning its wheels during an earlier attempt.

Mission controllers prepared for a crucial manoeuvre today to redirect Europe’s Mars orbiter nearer to the Red Planet’s poles – the first step in pushing it into a lower orbit where it can listen for the missing Beagle 2 surface probe.

Japanese space agency officials insist they have not yet lost Hope. But the fate of the country’s first interplanetary explorer - a Mars probe dubbed Nozomi, which means hope - is growing doubtful.

Evidence of a huge ancient lake covering more than a million square kilometres has been discovered on Mars.