Old rovers can indeed learn new tricks. Rolling into its 10th anniversary on the Red Planet, Opportunity has discovered clay minerals showing that life-friendly water flowed on Mars in the earliest epoch of its history. The findings indicate that Curiosity's groundbreaking discovery last year of clays capable of hosting microbes like those on Earth was no fluke, experts said. "We've basically found strong evidence for clays on both sides of the planet," said Cornell University planetary scientist Steve Squyres, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program and co-author of a report published in Friday's edition of the journal Science. Opportunity has seen better days since it...
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