Sharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X @skuthunur.
's Curiosity rover has discovered an abundance of pure sulfur on Mars after it recently drove over a rock and cracked it open, stunning scientists.before, but only in a mixture with other minerals, including magnesium and calcium.
In the rover's photo of the rock , yellow sulfur crystals can be seen crowding within the inner regions of the object's crushed pockets. These crystals were too small and brittle for Curiosity to sample with a drill, so it ended up parking near another large rock nicknamed Mammoth Lakes, according to NASA. Here, the rover used a drill at the end of its robotic arm to scoop out a hole in that rock and stored it for further analysis before trawling away.
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