




The rover made a dramatic "seven-minutes-of-terror" landing last August near the planet's equator. A key task: Find out if ancient Mars ever had conditions favorable for microscopic organisms.


The analysis showed the rock contained clay minerals that formed in a watery environment. It also had traces of sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and simple carbon -- essential chemical ingredients for life.

Unlike some places on Mars, scientists said the ancient water at the site appeared to be neutral and not too salty. Curiosity previously found a hint of the site's watery past -- an old streambed that the six-wheel rover crossed to get to the flat bedrock.

Curiosity has yet to turn up evidence of complex carbon compounds, considered life's chemical building blocks. Scientists said a priority is to search for a place where organics might be preserved.



Over the years, Mars spacecraft in orbit and on the surface have beamed back a wealth of information about the planet's geology. They've also been able to study rocks from Mars that have occasionally landed on Earth.

Several places on Mars -- now a frigid desert -- have shown evidence of a warmer and wetter environment early in the planet's history though not necessarily friendly for life.





NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission--pages/msl/index.html


Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia