Emily Chan
When NASA’s Curiosity rover ran over a rock on Mars, crushing it with its tires, the incident revealed an abundance of super rare sulfur crystals. The yellow crystals have never been seen on the Red Planet before.
The rover had been exploring Gediz Vallis, a channel that winds down the slopes of Mount Sharp in the center of Gale Crater, on May 30.
That’s when it accidentally drove over a small rock and cracked it open. Through the rover’s cameras, scientists observed yellow crystals among the broken pieces of rock.
The crystals were too delicate for the rover to handle. But after it drilled into another rock nearby, it found that the crystals were made of pure sulfur.
Previously, sulfur had been identified on Mars. However, it was combined with other elements in compounds that are known as sulfates.
Until now, pure sulfur had never been detected on the Red Planet. Scientists had suspicions that pure sulfur existed somewhere on Mars but did not expect to find it inside surface rocks.
It is unclear what kind of relationship the pure sulfur has with the other sulfur-based minerals in the area.
Photographs of the surrounding area show that similar crystals are scattered on the ground around these rocks.
The presence of yellow crystals could not be confirmed in any other rocks, but the scientists were confident that sulfur could be found in them as well.
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