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I guess I'm missing the staggering implications. It's cool, and these particular rocks are fascinating, but what are the implications that are surprising?

Water has always been supposed to have played a role in the state of Gale Crater, and it must have been moving water at some point...

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The staggering implication, as someone mentioned in another reply, is that it brings us one step closer to answering whether the existence of water led to existence of lifeforms, alive or dead.

Yup. And in order for there to be flowing water on Mars, conditions had to be much much warmer on the red planet in the past. Warm enough to support Earth-like life.

If life came to Earth aboard a comet (as opposed to developing here), it most likely arrived on Mars as well. In that case, the early solar system was probably teeming with life (seeds), and in that case, it could be very common elsewhere.

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