Pure sulfur crystals on Mars accidentally discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover
For the first time, NASA scientists have discovered pure sulfur on Mars thanks to the Curiosity rover accidentally revealing a cluster of yellow crystals while driving over a rock. The area appears to be abundant in sulfur, marking an unexpected find as previous observations only showed sulfur within minerals on the Red Planet. NASA notes that elemental sulfur forming in such conditions has not been linked to the history of this location before.
Curiosity broke open the rock on May 30 while driving through an area known as the Gediz Vallis channel, where similar rocks were seen all around. The channel is believed to have been carved by water and debris long ago. “Finding a rock field made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” said Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada. “It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Finding strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”
After spotting the yellow crystals, the team later used a camera on Curiosity’s robotic arm to get a closer look. The rover then took a sample from another rock nearby, as the pieces of rock it crushed were too fragile to drill. Curiosity is equipped with instruments that allow it to analyze the composition of rocks and soil, and NASA says its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) confirmed the discovery of elemental sulfur.
