Curiosity has accidentally made an important discovery on Mars

The Curiosity rover, which is traveling around the planet Mars to uncover its secrets, has just made a stunning discovery. rolling accidentally on a rock in the canal of Gediz Vallisthe latter shattered, revealing mysterious yellow crystals: sulfur in its purest form. A real treasure for scientists.

Although the presence of sulfates on Mars is not new, this discovery is unlike any other: it is in fact the first time that sulfur has been found on Mars. is discovered in its elemental form pure on the red planet.

Sulfur is an essential element for all life. It is usually absorbed in the form of sulfates and used to make two amino acids that living organisms need to make proteins. These sulfates are formed in particular when sulfur is mixed with other minerals in water. Once the latter evaporates, it leaves behind traces of these famous sulfates. Real gold mines of information, which scientists have long analyzed to understand the evolution of water on Mars.

Pure sulfur, on the other hand, tells a completely different story. Its formation requires a specific and rare set of conditions that scientists don’t imagine occurring at the location where this rock was accidentally found. Enough to throw all their calculations into disarray.

Analysis to come

The researchers are not yet at the end of their surprises. The Gediz Vallis channel is in fact littered with similar rocks. No doubt elemental sulfur is also hidden in many of them.

“Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert”, explains to the media ScienceAlert Ashwin Vasavada, a Curiosity project member at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It shouldn’t be there.” The Gediz Vallis Canal is an ancient watercourse whose remains bear traces of the passage of a river that once flowed billions of years ago.

Now, scientists will try to understand how this pure sulfur ended up here. And it just so happens that Curiosity will give them a big helping hand: the rover has taken a sample of powder from the heart of one of these rocks, in order to analyze it.