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Results from Opportunity and Curiosity show Mars could have supported life.

January 23, 2014

Results from Opportunity and Curiosity show Mars could have supported life.

Top Discoveries: Spirit and Opportunity, and Curiosity.

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

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This 360-degree panorama from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the rugged surface of 'Naukluft Plateau' plus upper Mount Sharp at right and part of the rim of Gale Crater. The April...
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This 360-degree panorama from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the rugged surface of 'Naukluft Plateau' plus upper Mount Sharp at right and part of the rim of Gale Crater. The April 4, 2016, scene is dominated by eroded remnants of a finely layered ancient sandstone deposit.
Full-Circle Vista from 'Naukluft Plateau' on Mars
A Russian-built, neutron-shooting instrument on the Curiosity rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission will check for water-bearing minerals in the ground beneath the rover.
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A Russian-built, neutron-shooting instrument on the Curiosity rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission will check for water-bearing minerals in the ground beneath the rover.
Detectors of Instrument for Detecting Water-Bearing Minerals
This view shows the patch of veined, flat-lying rock selected as the first drilling site for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
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This view shows the patch of veined, flat-lying rock selected as the first drilling site for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
'John Klein' Site Selected for Curiosity's Drill Debut (Unannotated)
These images and overlay bar charts from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover indicate where some high-potassium material is localized within mineral veins a...
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These images and overlay bar charts from the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover indicate where some high-potassium material is localized within mineral veins at "Garden City."
Dark, Thin Fracture-Filling Material
Left and right eyes of the Navigation Camera (Navcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took the dozens of images combined into this stereo scene of the rover and its surroundings. The component image...
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Left and right eyes of the Navigation Camera (Navcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took the dozens of images combined into this stereo scene of the rover and its surroundings.
Mars Stereo View from "John Klein" to Mount Sharp (Raw)
This image provides a way to have a full-size printout of the calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
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This image provides a way to have a full-size printout of the calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
Full-Scale Image of MAHLI Calibration Target
This graphic shows tenfold spiking in the abundance of methane in the Martian atmosphere surrounding NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, as detected by a series of measurements made with the Tunable Laser...
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This graphic shows tenfold spiking in the abundance of methane in the Martian atmosphere surrounding NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, as detected by a series of measurements made with the Tunable Laser Spectrometer instrument in the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars laboratory suite.
Methane Measurements by NASA's Curiosity in Mars' Gale Crater
This image is from a series of test images to calibrate the 34-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. It was taken on Aug. 23, 2012 and looks south-southwest from the rover's landing site.
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This image is from a series of test images to calibrate the 34-millimeter Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover. It was taken on Aug. 23, 2012 and looks south-southwest from the rover's landing site.
Focusing the 34-millimeter Mastcam
This map shows the route on lower Mount Sharp that NASA's Curiosity followed in April and early May 2015, in the context of the surrounding terrain. Numbers along the route identify the sol, or Ma...
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This map shows the route on lower Mount Sharp that NASA's Curiosity followed in April and early May 2015, in the context of the surrounding terrain. Numbers along the route identify the sol, or Martian day, on which it completed the drive reaching that point, as counted since its 2012 landing.
Curiosity's Path to Some Spring 2015 Study Sites
This set of views illustrates capabilities of the Mast Camera (MastCam) instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover, using a scene on Earth as an example of what MastCam's two camer...
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This set of views illustrates capabilities of the Mast Camera (MastCam) instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover, using a scene on Earth as an example of what MastCam's two cameras can see from different distances.
Illustrating MastCam Capabilities with a Terrestrial Scene
The two bodies in this portion of an evening-sky view by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are Earth and Earth's moon. The rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) imaged them in the twilight sky of Curiosity's 529...
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The two bodies in this portion of an evening-sky view by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are Earth and Earth's moon. The rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) imaged them in the twilight sky of Curiosity's 529th Martian day, or sol (Jan. 31, 2014).
Curiosity Mars Rover's First Image of Earth and Earth's Moon
Five years since it landed near Mount Sharp on Mars in August 2017 and nearly three years since reaching the base of the mountain, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is climbing toward multiple layers of ...
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Five years since it landed near Mount Sharp on Mars in August 2017 and nearly three years since reaching the base of the mountain, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is climbing toward multiple layers of Mount Sharp visible in this view from the rover's Mast Camera.
More to Explore in Five-Year-Old Mars Rover's Future
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has clocked more than a decade of service at the Red Planet and has yielded scientific discoveries and magnificent views of a distant world. These images taken by...
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Magnificent Mars: 10 Years of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Magnificent Mars: 10 Years of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here, which the science team has named "Hottah" after Hottah Lake in...
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NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here, which the science team has named "Hottah" after Hottah Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories.
Remnants of Ancient Streambed on Mars
This April 4, 2014, image from Curiosity's Mastcam looks to the west of a waypoint on the rover's route to Mount Sharp. The mountain lies to the left of the scene. The image shows sets of sandstone...
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This April 4, 2014, image from Curiosity's Mastcam looks to the west of a waypoint on the rover's route to Mount Sharp. The mountain lies to the left of the scene. The image shows sets of sandstone beds inclined to the south (left), indicating progressive build-out of sediment toward Mount Sharp.
Sets of Beds Inclined Toward Mount Sharp
Data graphed here are examples from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory's detection of Martian organics in a sample of powder that the drill on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected from a...
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Data graphed here are examples from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory's detection of Martian organics in a sample of powder that the drill on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover collected from a rock target called "Cumberland."
Data from Detection of Organics in a Rock on Mars
This set of images shows the similarity of sulfate-rich veins seen on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover to sulfate-rich veins seen on Earth.
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This set of images shows the similarity of sulfate-rich veins seen on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover to sulfate-rich veins seen on Earth.
Veins in Rocks on Mars and Earth
This pairing illustrates the first time that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected a scoop of soil on Mars.
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This pairing illustrates the first time that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected a scoop of soil on Mars.
First Scoop by Curiosity, Sol 61 Views
This image shows the underside of a grey F/A-18 jet with dark stripes flying against a blue sky from quite a distance away. Underneath the jet is a pod carrying sensors that measure the jet's tempe...
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This image shows the underside of a grey F/A-18 jet with dark stripes flying against a blue sky from quite a distance away. Underneath the jet is a pod carrying sensors that measure the jet's temperature, pressure and vibration.
High-Flying Test Rides
Decades of work preparing a miniaturized laboratory for identifying minerals on Mars have also yielded spinoff versions with diverse applications on Earth and, possibly, the moon.
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This image shows a miniaturized laboratory, in an orange case, in use during an expedition to the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii.
Laboratory-in-a-Box Has Uses on Mars, Earth, Elsewhere
At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the "back shell powered descent vehicle" configuration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory is being rotated for ...
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At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the "back shell powered descent vehicle" configuration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory is being rotated for final closeout actions.
Rotating Curiosity's Back Shell Powered Descent Vehicle
This image of terrain inside Mars' Gale Crater and the inset of the calibration target for the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity illustrate how false color can be used to make di...
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This image of terrain inside Mars' Gale Crater and the inset of the calibration target for the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity illustrate how false color can be used to make differences more evident in the materials in the scene.
Using False Color from Curiosity's Mast Camera
Born together, the Spirit and Opportunity twin rovers followed divergent paths after they landed on opposite sides of Mars. Opportunity’s journey was marked by good fortune, while Spirit’s was trou...
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Born together, the Spirit and Opportunity twin rovers followed divergent paths after they landed on opposite sides of Mars. Opportunity’s journey was marked by good fortune, while Spirit’s was troubled from the start.
A Lifetime on Mars: The Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity
This image graphs four gases released ("evolved") when powdered rock from the target rock "Cumberland" was heated inside the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on NASA's Curiosity Mars ...
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This image graphs four gases released ("evolved") when powdered rock from the target rock "Cumberland" was heated inside the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.
Volatiles Released by Heating Sample Powder from Martian Rock "Cumberland"
The Atlas V first stage to support the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is positioned inside the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
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The Atlas V first stage to support the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is positioned inside the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The Rocket Arrives

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