Note: the NEWSY embed refers to Curiosity, not Opportunity as the article elucidates. Wonder if Space.com caught this discontinuity? (NEWSY is correct)
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has made perhaps the biggest discovery of its nearly 10-year career, finding evidence that life may have been able to get a foothold on the Red Planet long ago.
The Opportunity rover spotted clay minerals in an ancient rock on the rim of Mars' Endeavour Crater, suggesting that benign, neutral-pH water once flowed through the area, scientists said.
"This is water you could drink," Opportunity principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University told reporters today (June 7), explaining why the rock, dubbed "Esperance," stands out from other water-soaked stones the rover has studied.
Space.com: Rover Finds New Evidence That Ancient Mars Was Habitable
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