Fri September 28, 2012 NASA's Curiosity Finds Water Once Flowed
On Mars Originally published on Fri September 28, 2012 8:29 am
NASA's newest Mars rover, Curiosity, has snapped photos of rocky
outcroppings that jut out from the alien soil, and scientists
say they look like the remnants of an ancient stream bed where
water once flowed on the surface of the red planet. The exposed
rocks look like broken slabs of concrete sidewalk, about four
inches thick, and are made of rounded bits of gravel in a sandy
matrix. The rock has eroded a little bit, and some of the smooth
pebbles — about the size of M&M candies — have fallen down into
a little pile. Scientists looked at all this and came to this
conclusion: "This is a rock that was formed in the presence of
water," says John Grotzinger, project scientist for the mission
at the California Institute of Technology. And not just any
water, but a flowing stream. Scientists have believed for a long
time that Mars once had liquid water on its surface. Orbiting
spacecraft c