Mars Once Suited for Ancient Life Announced NASA

Primitive life could have once lived on ancient Mars NASA officials announced Tuesday.

Rock samples collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.

"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."

The rover Curiosity landed on Mars seven months ago to begin its two-year investigation into whether Mars could had supported life.  

Twenty percent of the sample was made up of clay minerals, which is believed to be a product of the reaction of water with other minerals in the sediment.

NASA says they were surprised to find a mixture of oxidized, less-oxidized, and even non-oxidized chemicals providing an energy gradient of the sort many microbes on Earth exploit to live. This partial oxidation was first hinted at when the drill cuttings were revealed to be gray rather than red.

"We have characterized a very ancient, but strangely new 'gray Mars' where conditions once were favorable for life," said John Grotzinger, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. "Curiosity is on a mission of discovery and exploration, and as a team we feel there are many more exciting discoveries ahead of us in the month."

While your eyes are in the skies, look for Comet PANSTARRS, which is emerging out of the sun's glare on Tuesday Mar. 12 and could be visible to the naked eye until the end of the month.   

For more about the Mars mission:

Website: http://www.nasa.gov/msl
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity