NASA's Mars Rover Leaves Scientists Stunned After Finding A Surprise In A Martian Rock

From intense solar storms, to helping reveal the history of the Red Planet, the Mars Curiosity rover has led a very interesting life thus far. Now, a new finding has left NASA scientists shocked after the Curiosity rover cracked open a rock it ran over and unveiled something never before seen on the Red Planet.

Curiosity arrived at Gediz Vallis channel earlier this year with the hope of finding an ancient oasis. The team back on Earth hoped the trek would provide evidence for what some believe was once home to an ancient and winding river, and potentially confirm how the channel came to be. While hoping to find evidence from debris flows (rapid, wet landslides), or a river carrying rocks and sediment, Curiosity came across a field of rocks containing a surprise: sulfur in its elemental form.
“Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” remarked Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”

While some may be snarling their nose at the thought of smelling sulfur, elemental sulfur is odorless. Scientists with NASA say it forms in only a narrow range of conditions, which they had not associated with the history of the Gediz Vallis channel. Even more surprising, however, was Curiosity didn’t just find one or two of these rocks containing sulfur, it found a whole field of them.


The surprise finding is only one of several discoveries Curiosity has made since entering the Gediz Vallis channel. Gediz Vallis is a groove that winds down part of the 3-mile-tall Mount Sharp, which Curiosity has been descending since 2014. According to NASA, each layer of the mountain represents a different period in Martian history, with scientists hoping Curiosity will find evidence in the terrain of nutrients needed for microbial life, and if any ever formed on the Red Planet.

As Curiosity continues on its journey through the Gediz Vallis channel, NASA will watch for more surprises along the way, such as the rover’s recent finding of sulfur in its elemental form.