Starring John Simm, Life On Mars tells the story of a modern-day policeman who finds himself transported to the 1970s.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Almost 6m experience Life on Mars

The phenomenon of sedimentary layers is remarkably similar to what is seen on Earth, in California's Death Valley or in Montana's Glacier National Park, says John Grotzinger, chief scientist of the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

CNN: Rover Curiosity near Mars landing

The sample comes from a hole about 2.5 inches deep drilled on Feb. 8 in a flat plate of sedimentary bedrock that the space agency managers have named "John Klein" in memory of a Mars Science Laboratory deputy project manager who died in 2011.

WSJ: Rover on Mars Extracts First Rock-Core Sample

"If anybody has been harboring doubts about the status of U.S. leadership in space, well, there's a one-ton, automobile-size piece of American ingenuity, and it's sitting on the surface of Mars right now, " said White House science adviser John P.

WSJ: NASA's Curiosity Rover Lands on Mars

It is a region that Curiosity project scientist John Grotzinger told the BBC's Horizon programme reads like a "book about the early environmental history of Mars".

BBC: Nasa's Curiosity rover successfully lands on Mars