Temperatures can drop to -225°F on Mars, and the air is unbreathable. But around 4 billion years ago, the planet had oceans and seas, and a thick blanket of air. These conditions could have supported life.
For the past nine and a half years, NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring the planet’s Gale Crater, which was probably once a lake. Today, the crater contains rocks and sediment. Curiosity has studied these for clues to whether tiny life-forms called microbes ever lived there. They could have left chemical traces on the surface. In January, NASA announced that Curiosity might have found what it was looking for.
Trafalgar Releasing ?Everett CollectionTemperatures can drop to -225°F on Mars, and the air is unbreathable. But around 4 billion years ago, the planet had oceans and seas, and a thick blanket of air. These conditions could have supported life.
For the past nine and a half years, NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring the planet’s Gale Crater, which was probably once a lake. Today, the crater contains rocks and sediment. Curiosity has studied these for clues to whether tiny life-forms called microbes ever lived there. They could have left chemical traces on the surface. In January, NASA announced that Curiosity might have found what it was looking for.
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