NASA’s Curiosity Rover landed on Mars a little over a year ago, and results from its first four months of data collection have now been published in the journal Science.

Five articles outline numerous findings from Curiosity’s suite of instruments, including data from Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction (CheMin). The studies will help astrobiologists understand past and present environmental conditions on Mars.

Two points of interest found along Curiosity’s initial 500-meter drive are a rock dubbed Jake_M, and the aeolian deposit (a pile of wind-blown sand, silt and dust) known as Rocknest.

The first paper, “The Petrochemistry of Jake_M: A Martian Mugearite” (Stolper et al., 2013), describes how Jake_M is an example of martian magma that is unlike any other rock yet identified on the Mars. Jake_M was analyzed by Curiosity’s Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, and the study provides some clues as to whether or not water was present when the rock was formed.

The second paper, “Soil Diversity and Hydration as Observed by ChemCam at Gale Crater, Mars” (Meslin et al., 2013), discusses initial results from the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) instrument. ChemCam identified two different soil types in Curiosity’s 500-meter traverse. No significant exchange of water vapor between the soil and atmosphere was detected, but ChemCam did show that water molecules bound to the soil make up an estimated 2% of the weight of particles.

Curiosity also scooped up samples from Rocknest and analyzed them with its CheMin instrument. The rover found that the composition of the crystalline component of samples was similar to basalt rocks from Mars’ Gusev crater – the landing site of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER), Spirit. Samples from the amorphous material from Rocknest resemble places on Earth like Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano. The results are discussed in the paper, “X-ray Diffraction Results from Mars Science Laboratory: Mineralogy of Rocknest at Gale Crater” (Bish et al., 2013).

The fourth paper, “Curiosity at Gale Crater, Mars: Characterization and Analysis of the Rocknest Sand Shadow” (Blake et al., 2013), describes how aeolian deposit from Rocknest are similar to deposits studied previously by both the MER Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument found that volatiles of water, oxygen, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and chlorine were contained in the samples.

The final paper, “Volatile, Isotope, and Organic Analysis of Martian Fines with the Mars Curiosity Rover” (Leshin et al, 2013), discusses what happened when SAM heated samples from Rocknest and analyzed the gases that were produced. The results indicated that water made up about 1.5% to 3% of the weight of the samples. A number of simple organic molecules were also detected, but scientists cannot be sure that they martian in origin.

Astrobiologists will use the new wealth of data from Curiosity to reconstruct Mars’ complicated geological and environmental history. This is important in understanding whether or not habitats suitable for life as we know it once existed at the planet’s surface.