Surprising to be sure. You have to wonder why only a part of the sulphur is bound in minerals. Especially with so much water being present in the past of Mars. Also, it's weird to think about how...
Surprising to be sure. You have to wonder why only a part of the sulphur is bound in minerals. Especially with so much water being present in the past of Mars.
Also, it's weird to think about how this is discovered purely by Curiosity happening to drive over the right rock. For all the billions we invest in science, sometimes you really just have to be goddamn lucky.
They landed in that region and were driving down that channel because it looked interesting to the geologists, so it's not entirely by chance - they made a good guess where to look.
They landed in that region and were driving down that channel because it looked interesting to the geologists, so it's not entirely by chance - they made a good guess where to look.
From the press release: … … … But here’s the image caption: So it’s a little unclear how much of that was an accident.
From the press release:
Since October 2023, the rover has been exploring a region of Mars rich with sulfates, a kind of salt that contains sulfur and forms as water evaporates. But where past detections have been of sulfur-based minerals — in other words, a mix of sulfur and other materials — the rock Curiosity recently cracked open is made of elemental, or pure, sulfur. It isn’t clear what relationship, if any, the elemental sulfur has to other sulfur-based minerals in the area.
…
It’s one of several discoveries Curiosity has made while off-roading within Gediz Vallis channel, a groove that winds down part of the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) Mount Sharp, the base of which the rover has been ascending since 2014. Each layer of the mountain represents a different period of Martian history.
…
Spotted from space years before Curiosity’s launch, Gediz Vallis channel is one of the primary reasons the science team wanted to visit this part of Mars. Scientists think that the channel was carved by flows of liquid water and debris that left a ridge of boulders and sediment extending 2 miles down the mountainside below the channel.
…
While the sulfur rocks were too small and brittle to be sampled with the drill, a large rock nicknamed “Mammoth Lakes” was spotted nearby. Rover engineers had to search for a part of the rock that would allow safe drilling and find a parking spot on the loose, sloping surface.
But here’s the image caption:
These yellow crystals were revealed after NASA’s Curiosity happened to drive over a rock and crack it open on May 30.
So it’s a little unclear how much of that was an accident.
Surprising to be sure. You have to wonder why only a part of the sulphur is bound in minerals. Especially with so much water being present in the past of Mars.
Also, it's weird to think about how this is discovered purely by Curiosity happening to drive over the right rock. For all the billions we invest in science, sometimes you really just have to be goddamn lucky.
They landed in that region and were driving down that channel because it looked interesting to the geologists, so it's not entirely by chance - they made a good guess where to look.
From the press release:
…
…
…
But here’s the image caption:
So it’s a little unclear how much of that was an accident.