Mars was once "drenched with water," so much that life could easily have existed there, NASA said today.
Parts of Mars were once "drenched with water," so much that life could easily have existed there, NASA said today.
The robot explorer Opportunity has seen clear evidence of the main goal of Mars exploration - that water once flowed or pooled on the Red Planet's surface.
"Opportunity has landed in an area of Mars where liquid water once drenched the surface," NASA associate administrator Ed Weiler told a news conference. "Moreover, this area would have been good habitable environment."
That does not mean that evidence of life has been found - but it suggests that life could have evolved on Mars just as it did on Earth, NASA said.
It does mean NASA can go ahead with a plan to eventually send people to Mars .
Opportunity landed on Jan. 24 in a small crater on the vast flat Meridiani Planum near the planet's equator. It has spent most of its time there studying finely layered bedrock in the crater's wall.
Scientists have been puzzling over whether the layers were formed by wind, volcanic lava flows or water, and if little round balls nicknamed "blueberries" may have been formed by water.