Scientists found themselves on May 30 when a rock that NASA’s Curiosity rover broke into revealed something never before seen on the Red Planet: a treasure chest, or geologically speaking, a geode, filled with yellow crystals.
Since August 2012, Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater, a vast basin located in the equatorial region of Mars. Billions of years ago, this crater was home to a shallow lake, as evidenced by fossil wave marks and the sulfated unit. , a sedimentary rock formation rich in sulfur-based minerals (an aggregate of sulfur and other elements) deposited during water evaporation.
Using a tool attached to the rover’s arm, the scientists decided that the yellow crystals were elemental sulfur. This is the first time this type of crystalline sulfur has been found on the Red Planet.
It is unclear what relationship, if any, the sulfur geode has to other sulfur-based minerals in the region. On Earth, elemental sulfur forms only under a narrow diversity of conditions. Sulfur crystals may come from the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide along the edges of volcanic vents from which hot gases and vapors are emitted. But so far, Curiosity has discovered no evidence of recent or subsequent volcanic activity there. It is also discovered in some vein deposits and as a product of chemical alteration of older sulfur minerals. Sulfur in sedimentary rocks can be formed through the release of sulfates (sulfur and oxygen minerals), and interesting for the search for life on Mars, through microbial activity.
Scientists also claim that elemental sulfur is found in greater quantities in Martian rocks than previously thought. Nine days earlier, Curiosity had discovered an entire box of glowing rocks that looked like the one the rover had accidentally crushed.
Curiosity captured this symbol from near a rock nicknamed “Snow Lake” that resembles the rock of the Snow Lake. [ ] which contains elemental sulfur inside.
“Finding a stone box made of natural sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” says Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity mission scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to do it. ” “Discovering strange and unforeseen things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting. “
Additional interviews and interviews provided through NASA.
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