NASA scientists have reported that pure sulfur has been found on Mars for the first time. And apparently the area is full of it. This is an unexpected discovery – although sulfur-containing minerals have been observed on the Red Planet, elemental sulfur has never been seen there before. “It occurs only under narrow conditions that scientists do not associate with the history of this place,” he said. .
Curiosity broke through the rock on May 30 while moving through a region known as the Gediz Vallis channel, where similar rocks are seen everywhere. The channel is thought to have been carved by the flow of water and debris long ago. “Finding a rock field made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” says Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist. “It shouldn’t be there, so we have to explain it now. “Discovering the strange and unexpected is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”
After spotting the yellow crystals, the team used a camera on Curiosity’s robotic arm to get a closer look. The rover then sampled another nearby rock because the pieces of rock it broke up were too fragile to dig into. Curiosity is equipped with instruments that allow it to analyze the composition of rocks and soil, and NASA says that the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) has confirmed that it has found elemental sulfur.
