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When NASA’s Curiosity rover crossed the Martian terrain this spring, its wheels broke through a rock beneath. The crushed curtains revealed yellow sulfur crystals in their natural elemental form – a first-time discovery on Mars.
The accidental discovery, caused by the rover’s car-sized, one-ton weight, on the morning of May 30, was a delightful wonder for researchers. In addition to the crystals that Curiosity passed over, the rover found a plain with rocks dotting the surrounding ground.
“Finding a stone box made of natural sulfur is like an oasis in the desert,” Ashwin Vasavada, senior scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.
*Cronch* I ran on a rock and discovered crystals inside! It is natural sulfur. (And no, it doesn’t smell). Elemental sulfur is something that has never been noticed before on Mars. We don’t know much about those yellow crystals yet, but my team is interested in investigating. https://t. co/Am07DuXpPX pic. twitter. com/coIqWWGGJq
Starting in October 2022, Curiosity is traveling off-road in a “sulfate drive” on the Red Planet, on a Denali-sized peak called Mount Sharp. There, the rover discovered minerals containing sulfur combined with other elements, such as magnesium and calcium sulfate. sulfate. These salts, which are formed through the evaporation of water, may reveal more about the presence (and disappearance) of masses of water on Mars billions of years ago.
But the rover had not yet discovered natural sulfur. Their most recent discovery was in the Gediz Vallis Channel, a groove in the part of Mount Sharp that possibly also contains clues about the hydraulic history of Mars, as it was likely formed through water and sediments. Scientists were eagerly waiting for Curiosity to explore this area.
“I was speechless when I saw the sulfur symbol,” Briony Horgan, a planetary scientist at Purdue University and a member of other rover missions, told CNN’s Ashley Strickland.
“Pure elemental sulfur is very localized, because on Earth we most commonly locate it in places like hydrothermal vents,” Horgan adds. “Think of Yellowstone! So it’s a big mystery to me how this rock formed on Mount Sharp.
The newly discovered sulfur crystals were too sensitive for the rover to drill into, but it collected a sample from nearby bedrock for analysis.
The accidental but very important discoveries of Martian rovers are not without precedent. When the Spirit rover broke one of its six wheels in 2006, it ended up traveling another 800 meters, while scraping off a white powder that researchers had decided was only on natural silica.
“This showed that there were once hot springs or vents at the Spirit site, which may have provided favorable situations for microbial life,” said Steve Squyres, a researcher and researcher at Cornell University. Spirit Rover mission director, in a press release. when the rover retired in 2011.
Since landing on Mars in 2012, the Curiosity rover has climbed 2,600 feet to Mount Sharp, which sits in the middle of Gale Crater, a wide, ancient lake bed, and comprises layer upon layer of sedimentary rock. At the back of bodies of water and not on mountain tops, NASA researchers wondered whether Mount Sharp, officially known as Aeolis Mons, took shape from eroded marine sediments or windblown sediments. accumulated in the middle of the crater.
Curiosity’s 2019 gravity measurements recommend that either concept could be partly correct: The knowledge revealed that Mount Sharp’s surface was less dense than expected and may have accumulated wind-blown sediment and lakes in some places. .
Starting in March, the rover’s investigations into the three-kilometer-long Gediz Vallis channel came to this conclusion: it discovered rounded rocks, which appear to have been deposited through water currents, as well as angular rocks that may simply come from dry avalanches.
“It was not a quiet time on Mars,” Becky Williams, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute who uses Curiosity’s Mastcam to examine the history of water on Mars, said in the NASA statement. “There was exciting activity here. We examine the flows in the channel, adding lively floods and block-rich flows.
The accidental discovery of elemental sulfur here, which in certain cases only bureaucratically scientists had not linked in the past to this component of Mars, only adds to this dynamic picture of Mount Sharp.
“It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to do it,” Vasavada said in the statement. “Discovering strange and unforeseen things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting. “
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