Opportunity Rover Indicates Ancient Mars Was Wet
			
		
		
		
			Was Mars ever wet enough to support life?  
To help answer this question, 
NASA launched 
two 
rover missions to the 
red planet 
and landed them in regions that 
satellite 
images indicated 
might have been covered with water.  
Yesterday, mounting evidence was 
released indicating that the 
Mars Opportunity rover had indeed uncovered 
indications that its landing site, 
Meridiani Planum, was once quite wet.  
Evidence that liquid water once flowed includes the 
physical appearance of many rocks, 
rocks with niches where crystals appear to have grown, and rocks with 
sulfates.  
Pictured above, Opportunity looks back on its now empty lander.  
Visible is some of the 
light rock outcropping 
that yielded water indications, as well as the 
rim of the small crater 
where Opportunity landed.  
The rover will continue to explore its surroundings and try to determine the 
nature and 
extent that water molded the region.