NASA scientists have been left baffled by a “strange and unexpected” discovery on Mars which the space exploration experts can’t explain.
The Mars Curiosity Rover has beamed back images from the Red Planet to Earth showing bright yellow crystals that it found after a rock it drove over broke apart.
The bizarre substance on the usually desert-like red surface of Mars has caused excitement because researchers believe it is the element, sulphur.
But unlike the usually rotting-egg-smelling version of the element, which can be found around natural springs and volcanoes on Earth, this sulphur is not believed to emit any odour because it has no impurities.
Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said: “Finding a field of stones made of pure sulphur is like finding an oasis in the desert.
“It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”
The Curiosity Rover, which has been conducting a mission in this region of Mars since 2023, found the sulphur rocks in a three-mile deep channel close to Mount Sharp, the base of which the rover has been ascending since 2014.
According to the NASA website, “each layer of the mountain represents a different period of Martian history”.
It added: “Curiosity’s mission is to study where and when the planet’s ancient terrain could have provided the nutrients needed for microbial life, if any ever formed on Mars.”
NASA veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield shared his excitement at the discovery with a post on his X channel. He wrote: “Mars rover drove over a rock, and it cracked open to reveal pure sulphur crystals. How did they get there?”.
Mars is the fourth planet in terms of distance from the Sun and can be visible with the naked eye as a faint red glowing object in the sky.
A day on Mars is roughly the same length as on Earth, but a year lasts for 687 days and Mars is only around half the size of our planet.
The planet has long fascinated mankind and ancient civilisations like the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians all made observations.
