Curiosity Finds Evidence That Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Life

Only a little while after turning itself back on after a glitch stuck it in safe mode, Curiosity's chemical analysis of rock samples show something amazing: chemical evidence ancient Mars could've supported life. Curiosity used a pair of its instruments, Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin), to retrieve data on a powdered rock sample dug up last month, and scientists have uncovered chemical signs of life in it: the presence of sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon point to a planet that could once keep microbes alive. The sulfates and…