In a Washington D.C. press conference, NASA scientists said that enough evidence has been found at Opportunity's landing site to it might have been a body of water the size of one of Earth's Great Lakes:
The geologic signs of Martian water include Opportunity's discovery that the nearby outcrop was full of sulfate salt deposits arranged in layers, with spherical particles that can be formed by liquid water.More convincing were closer observations with two instruments on the rover arm, the Moessbauer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometers, as well as the mast-mounted minature therman emission spectrometer. Those instruments found a pattern of salt deposition found in the slow evaporation of water.
The existence of water makes it more likely that life existed on Mars at some time. The availability of water will be a critical factor in the planning of manned missions to Mars.
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