NASA’s Mars Rover Accidentally Smashes Rock on Mars, Makes Rare and Surprising Discovery
NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring the surface of Mars since 2011.and has already found chemical and mineral evidence of the existence of a habitable environment on the Red Planet.
Curiosity is the largest rover ever sent to Mars, launched in 2011 with the goal of finding out whether the planet ever had the environmental conditions necessary to support small life forms (microbes).
And then an unprecedented event happened: On May 30 of this year, the rover accidentally broke a rock. brilliantly as he passed over it, breaking it in half, which ended revealing the rare material that was insidewhich surprised scientists.
What was inside the stone?
In connection with the situation that occurred in the place known as the Gediz Vallis Canal, the 899-kilogram all-terrain vehicle The result was the discovery of yellow crystals of rare elemental sulfur, a real treasure!
These crystals have never been seen on Mars before. Although sulfates are quite common on the planet, Here, sulfur was discovered for the first time in its pure elemental form.
And this surprised scientists, since the element was discovered in this form for the first time.. In addition, there is the fact that the Gediz Valley channel is filled with rocks similar to the one that was crushed, which suggests that somehow Elemental sulfur may be abundant in this region.
The Gediz Valley channel is a winding structure that scientists say was formed by the flow of liquid water from an ancient river and debris that left behind ridges of rocks and sediment.
“Having found a field of stones of pure sulfur andIt’s like finding an oasis in the desert” says Ashwin Vasavada, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Element of pure sulfur
Sulfur is an essential element for all life. It is usually absorbed as sulfates.and is then used to synthesize two essential amino acids needed by living organisms to produce proteins: methionine and cysteine.
Pure sulfur only forms under a very limited set of conditions, none of which are known to have been observed in the region of discovery. In fact, this discovery suggests that There is something very important and big on the surface of Mars that we still don’t know about.say scientists.
Next steps…
The next step will be find out how exactly this sulfur could have gotten therebased on what is currently known about Mars. Meanwhile, the Curiosity rover will continue collecting data in the region.
Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting – Ashwin Vasavada, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Rover He drilled a hole in one of the stones and extracted a sample of dust from inside for chemical analysisand is now digging deeper into the channel to see if any new surprises emerge.
Link to news:
POT. “NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Surprise in Martian Rock” 2024.