"Dust devils themselves are difficult to capture in images because they are so short-lived," Ingrid Daubar, a planetary scientist at Brown University and lead author of the study, told Space.com by email. "The tracks they leave behind last longer, so we are able to observe them more thoroughly."

NASA's Perseverance rover has spotted an oddball rock in an ancient river channel on Mars. Deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan explains. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

The more scientists study the Red Planet, the more they find unusual objects and patterns scattered across Mars' surface. As one of Earth's closest neighbors in space, Mars has long captivated humans with the prospect of alien life located just a short rocket trip away.

A host of scientific investigations await the crew of NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 mission during their long-duration expedition aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke,

Mariner 4, built by JPL in Pasadena, took the images on July 14, 1965. One of the mission's leaders reflects on decades of studying the Red Planet.

NASA's Mars Sample Return mission has long been a point of contention for the agency, but now someone might have a plan to save it.

"Though the House and Senate have much still to debate on full-year appropriations, this much is clear: Congress is rejecting the full extent of the unprecedented, unstrategic, and wasteful cuts to NASA and NASA science proposed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget," the Planetary Society said in a statement.

Sixty years ago today, NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft took the first up-close images of Mars, changing humanity's understanding of the Red Planet. The spacecraft was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

THE famously desolate Mars landscape could be scattered with trees to the untrained eye, according to a recently shared Nasa image. However, the US space agency was quick to explain otherwise.