The Curiosity rover has stumbled upon crystals on Mars that have left scientists stunned.
The planet Mars is one of the main objects of current study by astronomers. It is gradually revealing its functioning and its secrets. It is currently being explored by the Curiosity rover, which has just made a surprising discovery by chance. While it was driving, the 899-kilogram rover accidentally broke a rock. The latter was filled with intriguing yellowish-green crystals, never observed on the planet.
These crystals are composed of pure sulfur. There could be many more, since the Gediz Vallis canal, a winding groove that is believed to be three billion years old and that is believed to have appeared following a mixture of water and debris, where the discovery was made, is littered with similar rocks.
Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity Project Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory explained that normally “it shouldn’t be there.” He called the discovery “breathtaking” but also “the strangest and most unexpected of the entire mission.” The researchers were amazed by the “beautiful texture and color inside” the rock.
Curiosity has previously discovered sulfates, sulfur-containing salts that form when water evaporates and are used to produce two amino acids essential for living organisms to make proteins, but this is the first time sulfur has been found in its pure form on the Red Planet.
This only forms under very specific conditions, such as during volcanic processes or in hot or cold springs, which do not seem to have occurred in this region of Mars, which makes the discovery even more surprising. This can be explained by the lack of knowledge about the geological history of the planet. Scientists therefore want to use this find to learn more.
Curiosity will therefore continue its exploration. It will now go deeper along the canal. The ultimate goal of the rover is to determine whether habitable environments existed on Mars.