Scientists at the University of Arizona’s (UArizona’s) Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and at the Tucson, Arizona, based Planetary Science Institute (PSI), in the US, have discovered evidence showing recent volcanic activity on Mars, hitherto largely conceived of as a dead planet. Studying imagery from spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet, they found the evidence around a fissure in what is known as the Cerberus Fossae system, in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars. Most volcanic activity on Mars occurred three to four billion years ago, although smaller, isolated, eruptions continued until perhaps only three million years ago. But this newly discovered volcanic activity could have taken place within the last 50 000 years, which is an insignificant time in geological terms.