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Artist’s impression of what Mars looked like billions of years ago. (Image: Ittiz)
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New findings from NASA’s Curiosity Rover provide
evidence that significant amounts of oxygen once permeated the
atmosphere of ancient Mars. The Red Planet, it would seem, was more
Earth-like than we thought.
Using the ChemCam instrument atop Curiosity, scientists at the Los
Alamos National Laboratory have discovered high levels of manganese
oxides in Martian rocks. The rover made the discovery in mineral-filled
cracks in sandstones in the Kimberley region of Gale crater. The
presence of this chemical element suggests that high levels of
free-floating oxygen once existed on Mars, and that in addition to
having a warmer climate and lakes of liquid water, this planet was once
quite Earth-like in terms of its chemical composition.
Read more at .....
http://gizmodo.com/ancient-mars-was-even-more-earth-like-than-we-imagined-1782680758
