To commemorate the first anniversary of Curiosity's landing on Mars, NASA takes a look back at the rover's twelve months of expedition so far in this video footage filmed from the rover's eye view.
NASA finally revealed the findings of Mars Curiosity today, announcing that the rover had discovered chemical compounds known as perchlorate, as well as water, sulfur and chlorine-containing substances in a Martian soil sample. The news came amidst heavy anticipations and rumored speculations that the rover had found signs of organic life, which was debunked earlier by the U.S. space agency as not true shortly before the announcement today. However, the scientists continued to take a careful approach to their findings by adding that the result won't be deemed conclusive until all possibilities of earthly contaminants in the sampled soil have been ruled out.
In 1996, just months before he died, astronomer/astrophysicist/author Carl Sagan recorded this message to future colonists living on Mars.
Very interesting to hear 16 years later, in the light of Curiosity's landing, and cuts jeopardizing our national space programs.
Hopefully a few politicians are listening to his words of wisdom.