March 12, 2013 PASADENA, Calif. -- An analysis of a rock sample
collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could
have supported living microbes. Scientists identified sulfur,
nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon -- some of the
key chemical ingredients for life -- in the powder Curiosity
drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in
Gale Crater on the Red Planet last month. "A fundamental
question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a
habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for
NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in
Washington. "From what we know now, the answer is yes." Clues to
this habitable environment come from data returned by the
rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and
Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments. The data indicate the
Yellowknife Bay area the rover is exploring was the end of an
ancient river system or an intermittently wet lake bed that
could have provided chemical energy and ot