{"id":25956,"date":"2024-07-21T10:40:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-21T10:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9920b9d2-5cd0-44ec-99c3-03725d85753c12"},"modified":"2024-07-21T10:40:05","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T10:40:05","slug":"nasas-curiosity-rover-accidentally-uncovered-pure-sulfur-crystals-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/nasas-curiosity-rover-accidentally-uncovered-pure-sulfur-crystals-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover accidentally uncovered pure sulfur crystals on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASA scientists say pure sulfur has been found on Mars for the first time after the Curiosity rover inadvertently uncovered a cluster of yellow crystals when it drove over a rock. And it looks like the area is filled with it. It\u2019s an unexpected discovery \u2014 while minerals containing sulfur have been observed on the Red Planet, elemental sulfur on its own has never been seen there before. \u201cIt forms in only a narrow range of conditions that scientists haven\u2019t associated with the history of this location,\u201d according to <span class=\"waslinkname\"><ins>NASA<\/ins><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Curiosity cracked open the rock on May 30 while driving in a region known as the Gediz Vallis channel, where similar rocks were seen all around. The channel is thought to have been carved by water and debris flows long ago. \u201cFinding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,\u201d said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity\u2019s project scientist. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\"><img class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview\" alt=\"A rock run over and cracked by the Curiosity rover revealing yellow sulfur crystals\" data-src=\"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/nasas-curiosity-rover-accidentally-uncovered-pure-sulfur-crystals-on-mars.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A rock run over and cracked by the Curiosity rover revealing yellow sulfur crystals\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/nasas-curiosity-rover-accidentally-uncovered-pure-sulfur-crystals-on-mars.png\" class=\"caas-img\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\"><span class=\"caption-credit\"> NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>After spotting the yellow crystals, the team later used a camera on Curiosity\u2019s robotic arm to take a closer look. The rover then took a sample from a different rock nearby, as the pieces of the rock it had smashed were too brittle for drilling. Curiosity is equipped with instruments that allow it to analyze the composition of rocks and soil, and NASA says its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) confirmed it had found elemental sulfur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA scientists say pure sulfur has been found on Mars for the first time after the Curiosity rover inadvertently uncovered a cluster of yellow crystals when it drove over a rock. And it looks like the area is filled with it. It\u2019s an unexpected discovery \u2014 while minerals containing sulfur have been observed on the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-25956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25956"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=25956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}