Drag your mouse or transfer your cellphone to discover this 360-degree panorama offered by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. This view was captured inside Gediz Vallis channel, which was seemingly shaped by historical floodwaters and landslides. After Curiosity drove over a vivid Martian rock and cracked it open, scientists found it was crammed with pure sulfur — one thing that’s by no means been seen on Mars earlier than.
- Curiosity rover discovers pure sulfur crystals in a Martian rock for the primary time, stunning scientists.
- Gediz Vallis’ different panorama was formed by floods and landslides and has offered proof of dynamic water exercise.
- The discovering poses new questions on Mars’ geological historical past, as Curiosity continues to discover Gediz Vallis channel, aiming to grasp the traditional Martian surroundings and its potential to have supported microbial life.
NASA first published this original article on July 18, 2024. Edits by EarthSky.
Researchers shocked by hidden contents of Martian rock
Scientists have been shocked on Might 30, 2024, when a Martian rock that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drove over cracked open to disclose one thing by no means seen earlier than on the pink planet: yellow sulfur crystals.
Since October 2023, the rover has been exploring a area of Mars wealthy with sulfates, a type of salt that comprises sulfur and types as water evaporates. However the place previous detections have been of sulfur-based minerals – in different phrases, a mixture of sulfur and different supplies – the rock Curiosity not too long ago cracked open is fabricated from elemental, or pure, sulfur. It isn’t clear what relationship, if any, the basic sulfur has to different sulfur-based minerals within the space.
Whereas folks affiliate sulfur with the odor from rotten eggs (the results of hydrogen sulfide fuel), elemental sulfur is odorless. It types in solely a slim vary of circumstances that scientists haven’t related to the historical past of this location. And Curiosity discovered lots of it – a whole area of vivid rocks that look much like the one the rover crushed.
Curiosity’s undertaking scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explained why researchers have been so shocked:
Discovering a area of stones fabricated from pure sulfur is like discovering an oasis within the desert. It shouldn’t be there, so now we now have to clarify it. Discovering unusual and sudden issues is what makes planetary exploration so thrilling.
*Cronch* I ran over a rock and located crystals inside!
It is pure sulfur. (And no, it doesn’t odor.) Elemental sulfur is one thing we’ve by no means seen earlier than on Mars. We do not know a lot about these yellow crystals but, however my staff is worked up to research. https://t.co/Am07DuXpPX pic.twitter.com/coIqWWGGJq
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) July 18, 2024
A ‘curious’ discovery
It’s considered one of a number of discoveries Curiosity has made inside Gediz Vallis channel, a groove that winds down a part of the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) Mount Sharp, the bottom of which the rover has been ascending since 2014. Every layer of the mountain represents a distinct interval of Martian historical past. Curiosity’s mission is to check the place and when the planet’s historical terrain may have offered the vitamins wanted for microbial life, if any ever shaped on Mars.
Picture by way of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Proof hints violent historical floods and avalanches formed Mars
Gediz Vallis channel is among the main causes the science staff needed to go to this a part of Mars. Scientists suppose that the channel was carved by flows of liquid water and particles that left a ridge of boulders and sediment extending 2 miles (3.2 km) down the mountainside under the channel. The objective has been to develop a greater understanding of how this panorama modified billions of years in the past, and whereas current clues have helped, there’s nonetheless a lot to be taught from the dramatic panorama.
Since Curiosity’s arrival on the channel earlier this yr, scientists have studied whether or not historical floodwaters or landslides constructed up the massive mounds of particles that stand up from the channel’s flooring right here. The newest clues from Curiosity counsel each performed a job: some piles have been seemingly left by violent flows of water and particles, whereas others seem like the results of extra native landslides.
These conclusions are primarily based on rocks discovered within the particles mounds: Whereas stones carried by water flows grow to be rounded like river rocks, a few of the particles mounds are riddled with extra angular rocks which will have been deposited by dry avalanches.
Lastly, water soaked into all the fabric that settled right here. Chemical reactions attributable to the water bleached white “halo” shapes into a few of the rocks. Erosion from wind and sand has revealed these halo shapes over time.
Becky Williams, a scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and the deputy principal investigator of Curiosity’s Mast Digital camera, or Mastcam, described the early mayhem on the pink planet:
This was not a quiet interval on Mars. There was an thrilling quantity of exercise right here. We’re a number of flows down the channel, together with energetic floods and boulder-rich flows.
Martian rock discovery: A gap in 41
All this proof of water continues to inform a extra advanced story than the staff’s early expectations, they usually’ve been desirous to take a Martian rock pattern from the channel so as to be taught extra. On June 18, 2024, they received their probability.
Whereas the sulfur rocks have been too small and brittle to be sampled with the drill, a big Martian rock nicknamed “Mammoth Lakes” was noticed close by. Rover engineers needed to seek for part of the rock that will enable secure drilling and discover a parking spot on the unfastened, sloping floor.
After Curiosity bored its forty first gap utilizing the highly effective drill on the finish of the rover’s 7-foot (2-meter) robotic arm, the six-wheeled scientist trickled the powdered rock into devices inside its stomach for additional evaluation in order that scientists can decide what supplies the rock is fabricated from.
Curiosity has since pushed away from Mammoth Lakes and is now off to see what different surprises are ready to be found inside the channel.
Backside line: The rover Curiosity discovered sulfur crystals in a Martian rock for the primary time. Researchers say they shouldn’t be there and are in search of a proof.
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