2024-07-23 11:19:10
While searching for chemical evidence that the Red Planet was once habitable, the rover found yellow-green crystals of pure sulfur.
Although sulfur-bearing minerals have been observed on Mars so far, pure sulfur itself has never been observed.
While traveling through the Gediz Valliz channel, Curiosity accidentally broke open the white rocks, which revealed “strange” structures that add to the growing evidence that Mars was once a habitable world.
Previous research suggests that sulfur may have played a role in the origin of life on Earth more than four billion years ago, when the atmosphere was rich in sulfur and carbon released by volcanic activity.
The microbes metabolized the sulfur isotopes, releasing oxygen and starting a process of atmospheric oxygenation known as the Great Oxygenation Event.
However, scientists are not saying that this Curiosity discovery points to past life on Mars.
The find added to a growing body of evidence for other elements essential to life on Mars, including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus.
The discovery also suggests that water was present on Mars – which is also a key ingredient for life.
“Finding a field of rocks made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” says Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada. “It shouldn’t be there, so we have to figure it out now.” Discovering the strange and unexpected is what makes planetary research so exciting.”
The ground-breaking discovery was made on May 30 as Curiosity traveled through the Gediz Vallis channel, a chasm that winds down from the nearly five-kilometer-high Mount Sharp, the base of which the rover has been traveling since 2014.
The six-wheeled rover has already detected sulfur on Mars before – but only mixed with other minerals: magnesium and calcium, for example.
Combined with other elements, sulfur emits a pungent odor – but pure sulfur found on Mars is odorless.
Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California were the first to identify the collection of white rocks and gave Curiosity the direction to explore.
The rover sent a close-up image of the white rocks back to Earth, showing a fragment of crushed rock near Curiosity’s wheels. That’s when the team noticed the yellow crystals.
“I think this is the strangest find of the entire mission—and the most unexpected— CNN said A. Vasavada. – I have to say that there is a lot of luck here. Not every stone has something interesting.
Although the sulfur rocks were too small and brittle to be sampled with a drill, a large rock known as “Mammoth Lakes” was spotted nearby.
The rover’s engineers had to find a section of rock where they could safely drill – and find a parking spot on a loose, sloping surface.
After Curiosity drilled the 41st hole with a powerful drill on the back of a two-meter-long robotic arm, the rover injected powdered rock into instruments in its belly for further analysis so scientists could determine what materials the rock was made of.
No one expected that it would be pure sulfur, A. Vasavada recalls.
Sulfuric rocks typically have a “beautiful, transparent and crystalline texture” – but the accumulation seen on Mars has been sandblasted for millions of years, causing the bright yellow color to rub off and make it look pink like the surrounding landscape.
But the finding adds to the growing body of evidence for other elements essential to life on Mars — including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus.
The Gediz Vallis channel is one of the main reasons why the team of scientists wanted to visit this part of Mars. The region is south of the Martian equator. Scientists believe that the channel was eroded by flows of liquid water and debris. Efforts have been made to better understand how this landscape changed billions of years ago – and recent discoveries have provided insights.
Since Curiosity arrived at the canal earlier this year, scientists have been investigating whether ancient floods or landslides formed the large mountains of debris rising from the canal’s floor. Recent data from Curiosity suggests that both of these factors were important: some piles were likely left by violent water and debris flows, while others appear to have been formed by local landslides.
These conclusions are based on the rocks found in the debris piles. Flow-borne stones tend to be rounded like river rocks, while some debris piles contain more angular rocks that may have been carried by dry avalanches.
Eventually, the water soaked into all the material deposited here. Chemical reactions caused by water have resulted in white “halo” shapes in some rocks. Erosion caused by wind and sand revealed these halo shapes over time.
It was not a quiet period on Mars, says Becky Williams, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute (USA), who works on the Curiosity project. – There was a lot of action here. We observe many flows in the channel, including vigorous tides and boulder-rich flows.”
Adapted from the Daily Mail.
2024-07-23 11:19:10