LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – Scientists at Los Alamos National Labs say they discovered Earth-like environments on Mars. 

The Curiosity Rover has been exploring the surface of Mars since 2015 when it landed in the Gale Crater along the planet’s equator.

The goal of the mission is to figure out what the surface of the planet is made up of and if it could support life.

“After we landed we found lots of evidence for running water like rivers running into lakes. And that lake rock that represents the lake seems to have existed for a very long time in Gale Crater,” said Patrick Gasda, a LANL research scientist. 

The images were sent back from the Curiosity Rover, showing the large field of manganese rocks.

“We can see the rocks are layered, they are all flat and that is characteristic of rocks formed in lakes, and on top of that these rocks are clay minerals or rocks that can only form in water,” said Gasda. 

While that water is long gone, that doesn’t necessarily mean all life is gone too.

“All the observations we have so far suggest yes if there are microbes on Mars like Earth they would be totally fine to live on Mars,” Gasda said. 

Gasda published his findings in the Journal of Geophysical Research, detailing what his team has observed while working on the Curiosity Rover. They have learned a lot from the pictures.

“Every time we look at an image from Mars we are the first people to get to look at the image, and we can use our scientific expertise to try and understand what is going on,” said Gasda.