Mars Exploration rover Opportunity's view of "Solander Point". Photo: NASA Washington: Scientists on Friday called NASA's Opportunity rover gimpy and arthritic, but hailed its new discoveries about early water on Mars made almost 10 years after it was launched toward the Red Planet. The unmanned solar-powered vehicle has just analysed what may be its oldest rock ever, known as Esperance 6. It contains evidence that potentially life-supporting water once flowed in abundance, leaving clay minerals behind. "This is powerful evidence that water interacted with this rock and changed its chemistry, changed its mineralogy in a dramatic way,"...
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