Mars may be rather far away, but it is near and dear to my heart. Ever since I was in the fifth grade or there abouts and Mars was the closest to Earth that it had been in years, I've wondered about that cold red planet. What's it like there? Is the sky really pink? Are there aliens hiding there? Would we land a person on it in my lifetime?
Well, we haven't had a human touch down yet, but so far, NASA has landed a whole family of rovers on the Martian surface. Opportunity, which was only supposed to stay in action for a couple months, has kept on trucking for 10 years! In addition to being surprisingly durable in Opportunity's case, these vehicles are extremely highly sophisticated machines with more features and tools than a Swiss Army knife. It can take a selfie. It can drive over harsh, rocky Martian terrane. It can scoop up rocks and determine the mineral composition. And it is this last feature that scientists have found very illuminating in recent months.
While investigating rocks near the rim of the Endeavour Crater, Opportunity provided geologists with a lovely little nugget of information. The rocks there contained clay minerals--minerals that only form in aqueous environments with relatively neutral pHs. This aqueous environment could have potentially supported life way back in Martian history before the core froze, the planet turned into a freezing wasteland, the atmosphere all but dissipated, and the environment became generally unwelcoming. An environment possibly conducive to life. In our solar system! Oh, the feels.
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