The accidental discovery inside a bright stone was also made possible by the weight of Curiosity: The Mars rover weighs 900 kilos. (Image: NASA)
NASA has been exploring the Gediz Vallis channel on the red planet with the Mars rover Curiosity since October 2023. An unexpected, yellow discovery has now been made: pure sulfur.
NASA owes this to chance, because Curiosity accidentally broke open a rock with this sulfur inside when it drove over it.
What makes the discovery so special: Sulfur-based materials are nothing unusual for Mars, as can be seen in the NASA report Pure sulfur, on the other hand, is called.
- Accordingly, there are many sulfates or salts containing sulfur in the Gediz Vallis Canal.
- However, this is sulfur mixed with other materials rather than pure sulfur.
- According to NASA, pure sulfur is produced
only under special conditions, which scientists have not yet been able to understand the history of this place [gemeint ist der Mars, Anm. d. Red.] have associated
.
This makes it all the more remarkable that Curiosity discovered an entire field of such stones, all of which presumably contain pure sulfur.
Link to YouTube content
What it looks like on site: If you want to get a rough impression of the area yourself, you can do so in the 360-degree video from NASA embedded above. After starting, hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse to change the direction of view.
The scientists are enthusiastic
Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, describes the significance of the discovery in the following words:
Finding a field of rocks made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert. It shouldn’t be there, so we have to explain it now. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.
The Mars rover has been in the region in question for ten years: the Gediz Vallis channel lies beneath Mount Sharps, at the foot of which Curiosity has been conducting research since 2014.
According to NASA, the goal is to learn more about the planet’s history by examining different layers of the mountain and to uncover possible nutrients that could have once made life on Mars possible (if it ever existed there).
Why the channel is so interesting for science
Curiosity took this image of the Gediz Vallis Canal on March 31, 2024. Did water play a role in the formation of the canal? (Image: NASA)
NASA assumes that the channel by streams of liquid water and debris
was formed, which makes it particularly interesting for research.
The area of the canal in its current form was probably formed by flood waters on the one hand and landslides on the other. NASA has the following specific explanation:
These conclusions are based on the stones found in the debris piles: while stones transported by water streams become rounded like river pebbles, some of the debris piles are interspersed with more angular stones that may have been deposited by dry avalanches.
The focus is primarily on the role of water. After all, water was a decisive factor in the emergence of life and is still of immense importance for the earth today, which is not without reason also called the blue planet
is called.
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Further analyses of the stones are already in progress
How exactly the pure sulfur comes into play in the laborious but also very exciting process of putting together the Mars puzzle remains uncertain for now.
But the researchers have high hopes for the yellow treasure that Curiosity has apparently discovered and want to take a closer look at it:
- According to the NASA report, the sulfur rocks seen in the image at the beginning of the article are too small to be analyzed by Curiosity.
- Fortunately, a much larger rock of similar type was discovered near the stone that had been driven over, which was named
Mammoth Lakes
was baptized. - When drilling the 41st (!) hole, Curiosity was finally successful and was able to take rock samples.
The analysis of the samples is still pending. If NASA gains further exciting insights, you will find out about it at GameStar Tech.
