Mars Answers "Yes"

"Yes" is the answer! Mars once had an environment that could have supported life. That was Curiosity's main question of Mars and the answer was found early on at a place called "John Klein." Analysis of a rock sample drilled there revealed that water and other key chemical ingredients for life were present!

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All the Right Stuff

Curiosity's built-in chemical and mineral analysis tools identified the right stuff for life, including a possible chemical energy source for microbial life. Sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon were confirmed during analysis of the gray powdered rock from "John Klein."

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Clearly, a Muddy Past

In Yellowknife Bay, Curiosity discovered abundant clues that Gale Crater had a watery past, hospitable to life. Chemical analyses showed that when it was wet in ancient times, this environment was not harshly oxidizing, acidic or overly salty. For microbial life, this place could have been just right!

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Drinking in the Possibility of Past Life

The sample from John Klein was compared with a second sample from a place called Cumberland. It confirmed the findings from analysis of the first drilling. In the Martian past, the water that flowed here may even have been drinkable!

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