- Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years, Curiosity has found
- Shows ancient Martian climate may have produced lakes at many locations
- Now believed the ancient, thick atmosphere on Mars raised temperatures above freezing globally on the planet
Billions of years ago, a lake once filled the 96-mile- (154-km) wide crater being explored by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, bolstering evidence that the planet most like Earth in the solar system was suitable for microbial life.
The new findings combine more than two years of data collected by the rover since its sky-crane landing inside Gale Crater in August 2012.
Scientists discovered stacks of rocks containing water-deposited sediments inclined toward the crater’s center, which now sports a three-mile (5 km) mound called Mount Sharp.
Scroll down for video
more
Curiosity rover finds crater and mountain it is exploring was once a giant lake | Daily Mail Online