Photo: Life on Mars? "Missing Mineral" Find Boosts Chances

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A colorized image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, released in December 2008, shows a heavily eroded area in the Nili Fossae region of the red planet.

Scientists announced that this and other new images reveal carbonate minerals in the ancient bedrock—a find that boosts the chances that life took hold on early Mars.

Image courtesy NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/Brown University

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