By Nadia Drake
It seems NASA chose the Curiosity rover’s destination wisely: The craft appears to have landed right in an ancient streambed. Tasked with searching for signs of life-friendly environments on Mars, the rover can now cross off “find evidence for water” from its life-friendly to-do list, NASA announced in a press conference September 27.
NASA sent Curiosity to Gale Crater because data from orbiting spacecraft suggested the site had a good chance of having once been wet. Still, the speed with which the discovery came seems to have surprised the team.