【The Exotic Time Machine】

Mars used to be The Exotic Time Machinea wildly different land.

Though the red planet is bone dry today, NASA's Curiosity rover recently rumbled by poignant evidence of an ancient watery world. The car-sized robot snapped an image of a unique rock that looks like its composed of stacked layers. Such a rock likely formed "in an ancient streambed or small pond," the space agency wrote.

Curiosity is winding up through the foothills of the three-mile-tall Mount Sharp, where it's encountering a place where these streams and ponds once carried red sediments through the landscape. Ultimately, some of these sediments were deposited in stacks.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

---

You May Also Like

---

---

SEE ALSO: A NASA rover just found trash on Mars A flaky, well-layered rock on Mars. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

And at lower elevations, there's clear evidence that Mars didn't just have ponds — it was warm and moist enough to harbor big lakes.

---

Related Stories

---

• How NASA's Venus probe will survive hell and make unprecedented discoveries
• NASA just inflated its new-age spaceship heat shield for Mars
• The mega-comet hurtling through our solar system is 85, yes 85, miles wide
• Why landing a spaceship on the moon is still so challenging
• If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know

Curiosity's robotic sibling, the Peservance rover, is now journeying through the planet's Jezero Crater, a place NASA suspects contained a lake and river delta. Though the water is all gone today, the robot has specialized equipment intended to identify past hints of microbial life that could have potentially dwelled on a wetter, different Mars.

• Science
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Deals
• Games
• Tech
• Life
• Digital Culture

• Amazon Spring Sale 2025: Best Apple AirPods 4 with ANC deal
• September Notebook, 2018 by Daniel Poppick
• Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, climate archvillain, to be named secretary of state
• Seven, Seven, Seven: A Week in Cambridge, Massachusetts by J. D. Daniels
• Q&A with tendercare founder and CEO Shauna Sweeney
• Best espresso deal: Get a free $120 Amazon credit with the Ninja Luxe Café Premier
• On Cary Grant, Darryl Pinckney, and Whit Stillman by The Paris Review
• Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, climate archvillain, to be named secretary of state
• Best gaming laptop deal: Save $400 on the HP Victus 15 with Ryzen 5 and Radeon RX 6550M
• Look, Kanye West! 4 times Donald Trump distracted us all

• Super famous cat tweets feline Christmas song and it's glorious
• Google is opening Home to third party developers
• This is what it's like to play a singing goblin in 'Fantastic Beasts'
• Oh hell yeah, look how big this turtle is
• Thousands of snow geese were killed after landing in a toxic lake
• Paris makes public transport free for third day to tackle air pollution
• Now you can password
• SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to fly again for first time since explosion
• Newt Gingrich commemorates the attack on Pearl Harbor in the worst way possible
• Orangutan surprises zoo by getting pregnant despite taking birth control

• NYT Connections hints and answers for May 1: Tips to solve 'Connections' #690.
• Announcing Our Fall Issue by Emily Stokes
• Speculative Tax Fraud: Reading John Hersey’s White Lotus by Matthew Shen Goodman
• Best massage deal: Get the Therabody Theragun mini (1st gen) for just $149.99 at Best Buy
• The strangeness of Japan's decision to start openly hunting whales
• It's not just eBay: 5 other tech companies with brutal layoffs
• September Notebook, 2018 by Daniel Poppick
• eBay is laying off 1,000 workers
• CPU Price Watch: 9900K Incoming, Ryzen Cuts
• Yes, 'Pokémon' is looking into 'Palworld'

• Robin Triumphant
• Infinite Dictionaries: A Conversation with Marc Hundley by Na Kim
• Snapchat+ is reportedly introducing an AI Bitmoji pet
• Jon Stewart returns to 'The Daily Show' as Monday night host
• NYT Strands hints, answers for April 14
• Best smart thermostat deal: Score a refurbished Amazon Smart Thermostat for just $39.99
• Emma Cline, Dan Bevacqua, and Robert Glück Recommend by The Paris Review
• Passing Through: On Leonard Cohen by Andrew Martin
• Commissioning Misleading Core i9
• Odysseus’s Kinesphere by Annie