NASA Mars rover finds strong evidence of water

NASAs Opportunity Mars rover, which landed on the red planet nearly eight years ago, has discovered a mineral vein that was almost certainly deposited by water billions of years ago.

By Mike Wall, SPACE.com / December 8, 2011

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This image provided by NASA shows a fragment along the rim of Endeavour Crater where the Mars rover Opportunity has been exploring since August. With Martian winter approaching, Opportunity has been in search of a spot to spend the winter.

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A well-traveled NASA Mars rover has found some of the best evidence yet that water flowed on the Red Planet's surface long ago, researchers announced today (Dec. 7).
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The Opportunity rover, which landed on Mars nearly eight years ago, has discovered a thin, bright mineral vein along the rim of a huge crater called Endeavour. This mineral is almost certainly gypsum that was deposited by liquid water billions of years ago, researchers said.
"This is the single most powerful piece of evidence for liquid water at Mars that has been discovered by the Opportunity rover," Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Opportunity's principal investigator, told reporters here today during the 2011 winter meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

MORE: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1208/NASA-Mars-rover-finds-strong-evidence-of-water

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