National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)The Mars rover Curiosity recently surprised scientists by driving over a rock, cracking it and discovering that pure sulfur is abundant on Mars.
Six-wheeled rover discovers sulfur Mars Until now, it only existed mixed with other minerals like magnesium and calcium. Pure sulfur is an odorless element that forms under very specific conditions that planetary scientists have not linked to the rover’s location, but it appears to permeate many of the rocks in the region. NASA statement.
“Finding a chunk of rock made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” Ashwin Vasavada, mission project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said in a statement. “It’s not supposed to be there, so we have to explain it.”
In photos of the rock taken by the rover (above), you can see a cluster of yellow sulfur crystals inside the object’s crushed pocket. NASA says the crystals were too small and fragile for Curiosity to drill into and sample, so it stopped near another large boulder nicknamed Mammoth Lakes. There, the rover used a drill on the end of its robotic arm to bore holes into the rock, storing it for further analysis before trawling it away.
Related: Small Martian “snowman” discovered by NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance (pictured)
CuriosityNow in the 12th year of its mission, the rover made its latest discovery by chance on May 30 while exploring Gediz Canyon, a waterway that winds down the slopes of Mount Sharp in the center of Gale Crater. The rover has been investigating the waterway for the past several months for signs of ancient microbial life.
Based on what we understand about Mars’ past, Mount Sharp There was more rain billions of years ago The Earth is drier now. The Gediz Canyon channel that snakes through the mountains was probably carved out by strong winds or powerful currents of liquid water when the Earth began to dry out. Curiosity found evidence of this history, especially in the piles of rubble that litter the channel. The rocks have faint rings and ring-like markings near their edges that scientists say are the result of chemical reactions caused by water after the rocks absorbed available minerals that had been deposited in the area.
Scientists aren’t sure what role Martian history may have played in the formation of the pure sulfur discovered this time, or whether the element has any connection to other sulfur-based minerals previously found in the region.
“Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting,” Vasavada said.
