What Has Curiosity Discovered So Far?

The selfie-taking, Twitter-posting vehicle is attributed with two significant findings. We know this because, in 2013, it excavated a sample of ancient mud that included nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon, some of the building ingredients of life. On top of that, Gale Crater’s rivers and lakes may have existed for a million years or more.

The Curiosity rover also discovered smooth, rounded stones in an ankle-to-hip-deep riverbank shortly after landing. These pebbles had presumably been carried downstream for many miles in the distance. On Mars’ Mount Sharp, the rover’s team discovered that more than 1,000 vertical feet of rock initially formed as mud in small lakes.