NASA's Mars rover Curiosity made a discovery on Thursday that confirmed what scientists had suspected-that water once existed on Mars, USA Today reported. Scientists based their conclusions on images sent by the rover that showed what appeared to be an ancient gravel stream bed.
According to USA Today, one of the stream bed slabs was named Hottah and it looked to be made of gravel cemented together by water. William Dietrich of the University of California-Berkeley, who is a mission scientists, told reporters that water may have moved about 3 feet per second "with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep."
In a statement released on the discovery, Dietrich said, "This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of the stream-bed material to direct observation of it."
Curiosity, which is on its 51st Martian day or "sol," arrived on the Red Planet to find evidence on whether the planet is or was able to sustain life. Fellow mission scientist John Grotzinger of Caltech, said, "The rock formed in the presence of a vigorous flow of water on the surface of Mars."
According to USA Today, the find confirms past observations, which led NASA to land Curiosity on Gale Crater. Michael Malin, who is part of the rover imaging team, told reporters, "We had anticipated this was where some water-lain sediments would be."
The rover is expected to travel towards more rock deposits to further test chemical conditions of past habitability on Mars, USA Today reported.
Grotzinger said, "This is really just the start of the science mission for the rover."