As Seen on CBSThisMorning, which is posting some of our images each morning this week: Making Tracks on Mars. Our Curiosity rover is driving toward Mount Sharp on Mars. Using the front and rear hazard cameras ("hazcams") we see the 3-kilometer-tall Mount Sharp looming ahead, and fresh rover tracks left behind. Since landing, Curiosity has driven 5 miles (8 kilometers) stopping to do science along the way. One of Curiosity's first major findings after landing on the Red Planet in August 2012 was an ancient riverbed at its landing site. Nearby, at an area known as Yellowknife Bay, the mission met its main goal of determining whether the Martian Gale Crater ever was habitable for simple life forms. The answer, a historic "yes," came from two mudstone slabs that the rover sampled with its drill. Analysis of these samples revealed the site was once a lakebed with mild water, the essential elemental ingredients for life, and a type of chemical energy source used by some microbes on Earth....
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