October 09, 2004

NASA's Mars rover, Opportunity, has discovered more evidence that water may have flowed over rocks on the Red Planet.

Data sent back by Opportunity suggests an area known as the Meridiani Planum, was drenched with water a second time, after an impact excavated a huge crater.

Scientists at NASA say a network of cracks identified in a rock called "Escher" near the bottom of the crater are similar in appearance to cracked mud found on Earth after water dries up.

"When we saw these polygonal crack patterns, right away we thought of a secondary water event significantly later than the episode that created the rocks," said Dr. John Grotzinger, a rover-team geologist.

The main goal of the rover project is to find evidence that water once flowed on Mars, because discovering wet environments may mean Mars once supported life.