Yellow crystals revealed after NASA’s Curiosity Rover drove over Mars rocks on May 30. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Rover has made a startling and incredible discovery on Mars. Yellow crystals were accidentally uncovered when the Curiosity Rover drove over rocks and cracked them open on May 30. NASA scientists said these crystals contain sulfur. And as if that is not enough, the Rover several recent findings, the rover found rocks made of pure sulfur, “a first on the Red Planet” said NASA.
The NASA Curiosity Rover has been on the hunt for sulfur on Mars since October 2023, focusing on a region packed with sulfates – salts containing sulfur left behind by evaporating water. While they’d found sulfur before, it was always mixed with other minerals. This time, though, the rover cracked open a rock filled with pure, elemental sulfur – a first for Mars! Scientists are now scratching their heads about how this pure sulfur might be connected to the surrounding sulfates, if at all.
“Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”
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It’s one of several discoveries Curiosity has made while off-roading within Gediz Vallis channel, a groove that winds down part of the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) Mount Sharp, the base of which the rover has been ascending since 2014. Each layer of the mountain represents a different period of Martian history. Curiosity’s mission is to study where and when the planet’s ancient terrain could have provided the nutrients needed for microbial life, if any ever formed on Mars.
Even before NASA’s Curiosity blasted off to Mars, scientists had their eyes on Gediz Vallis – a channel spotted from space years ago. This intriguing feature, with its long, winding path, hinted at a watery past. The leading theory is that flowing water and debris carved this channel, leaving behind a 2-mile long ridge of boulders and sediment. Curiosity’s mission here is to unlock the secrets of this dramatic landscape, piecing together how it transformed billions of years in the past. While recent discoveries have shed some light, this Martian marvel still holds many mysteries waiting to be unraveled.
Since Curiosity’s arrival at the channel earlier this year, scientists have studied whether ancient floodwaters or landslides built up the large mounds of debris that rise up from the channel’s floor here. The latest clues from NASA’s Curiosity Rover suggest both played a role: some piles were likely left by violent flows of water and debris, while others appear to be the result of more local landslides.
