Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2021

29 MARS ROVERS L eft and below, views from the Mastcam that show outcrops with finely layered rocks within the Murray Buttes region. The buttes and mesas rising above the surface in this area are eroded remnants of ancient sandstone that originated when winds deposited sand after lower Mount Sharp had formed. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS] stand this, it is necessary to find out if the red planet has ever had envi- ronmental conditions capable of supporting life. After Spirit and Opportunity strengthened the hypothesis that liquid water persisted on the sur- face of Mars in ancient times, scien- tists hoped to identify other in- gredients necessary for life, such as nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, hy- drogen, oxygen and sulfur. Life al-