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Science

Curiosity's scientific tools found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars. It continues to explore the rock record from a time when Mars could have been home to microbial life.

Overview
Objectives
Science Highlights
Science Instruments

Overview

Landing at Gale Crater, Mars Science Laboratory is assessing whether Mars ever had an environment capable of supporting microbial life. Determining past habitability on Mars gives NASA and the scientific community a better understanding of whether life could have existed on the Red Planet and, if it could have existed, an idea of where to look for it in the future.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of this scene at two times of day. Blue, orange, and green color was added to a combination of both panoramas for an artistic interpretation of the scene.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of this scene at two times of day. Blue, orange, and green colors were added to a combination of both panoramas for an artistic interpretation of the scene.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Objectives

To contribute to the four Mars exploration science goals and meet its specific goal of determining Mars' habitability, Curiosity has the following science objectives:

Biological objectives

1. Determine the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds
2. Inventory the chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur)
3. Identify features that may represent the effects of biological processes

Science Highlights
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this image of rhythmic rock layers with a repetitive pattern in their spacing and thickness.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this image of rhythmic rock layers with a repetitive pattern in their spacing and thickness.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Science Instruments

From cameras to environmental and atmospheric sensors, the Curiosity rover has a suite of state-of-the-art science instruments to achieve its goals.

Learn More about Science Instruments
From cameras to environmental and atmospheric sensors, the Curiosity rover has a suite of state-of-the-art science instruments to achieve its goals.
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