Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory November 27, 2013, an overview (titled, "The World of Mars") of current and proposed Mars exploration by John Grotzinger, chief scientist of the "Curiosity" rover mission, was published in the New York Times. On December 9, 2013, NASA reported that the planet Mars had a large freshwater lake (which could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life) based on evidence from the "Curiosity" rover studying Aeolis Palus near Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. On December 9, 2013, NASA researchers described, in a series of six articles in the journal Science, many new discoveries from the "Curiosity" rover. Possible organics
Sol (day on Mars) Mars Sol Date is defined mathematically as MSD = (Julian Date using International Atomic Time - 2451549.5 + "k")/1.02749125 + 44796.0, where "k" is a small correction of approximately 0.00014 d (or 12 s) due to uncertainty in the exact geographical position of the prime meridian at Airy-0 crater. The word "yestersol" was coined by the NASA Mars operations team early during the MER mission to refer to the previous sol (the Mars version of "yesterday"), and came into fairly wide use within that organization during the Mars Exploration Rover Mission of 2003. It was eventually picked up and used