Washington DC, April 21 -- Research from NASA's Curiosity rover has found evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars, bringing scientists closer to an answer on whether the Red Planet was ever capable of supporting life.

Lead author Dr. Ben Tutolo, PhD, an associate professor with the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, is a participating scientist on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover team.

The team is working to understand climate transitions and habitability on ancient Mars as Curiosity explores Gale Crater.

The paper, published this week in the journal Science, reveals that data from three of Curiosity's drill sites had siderite, an iron carbonate materia...