When NASA’s old but still-moving rover Curiosity drove over the rock, it crumbled to reveal yellow sulfur crystals.
Rocks made of pure sulfur have never been seen on Mars before, but scientists say the conditions under which such crystals form are unrelated to where the rover was exploring.
Since October 2023, the rover has been exploring sulfate-rich regions on Mars. Sulfates are a type of salt that contain sulfur and form when water evaporates. But whereas previous detections had found minerals that were a mix of sulfur and other substances, the rocks Curiosity recently cracked are made of elemental sulfur, or pure sulfur.
“It only forms under a narrow range of conditions that scientists have not linked to the history of this site,” a NASA spokesman said.
“And Curiosity found lots of bright chunks of rock that looked similar to what the rover crushed.”
Curiosity made the discovery while driving off-road within a channel in Gediz Canyon, a groove that slopes gently down part of the 3-mile-high (5-kilometer) Mount Sharp that the rover has been climbing since 2014.
NASA says it’s not clear what relationship, if any, elemental sulfur has to other sulfur-based minerals in the region.
Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory likened the discovery of the field of pure sulfur rock to “finding an oasis in the desert.”
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“It can’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting,” Vasavada said.
CNN Reports Vasavada and his team found evidence of bright white calcium sulfate (also known as gypsum) in cracks on the Martian surface, a hard-water deposit left behind by ancient groundwater flows.
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The mineral itself is not a pink diamond. Sulfur is the 10th most abundant element by mass in the universe and the 5th most abundant element on Earth. Elsewhere in the solar system, sulfur may be present near the lunar crater Aristarchus, and the distinctive color of Jupiter’s giant moon Io is thought to be due to molten, solid, and gaseous forms of sulfur.
Thankfully, while many people associate sulfur with the rotten egg smell caused by hydrogen sulfide gas, NASA confirms that elemental sulfur is odorless.
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