Curiosity rover uncovers rare sulphur crystals on Mars

This is the first instance of finding sulphur on the Red Planet in its pure, elemental form. Although scientists previously suspected that the surface of Mars was dotted with sulphuric rocks, there was a lack of direct evidence.

"Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert," said Ashwin Vasavada, a Curiosity project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as quoted by sciencealert.com this past summer.

And how are these mentioned sulphates formed? They are salts that form when sulphur, usually in the form of compounds, mixes with other minerals in water. When the water evaporates, the minerals mix and dry up, leaving sulphates in their place.

It is worth noting that sulphur is an essential element for all life. It is usually absorbed as sulphates and used to produce two essential amino acids that living organisms need to make proteins.

What surprised scientists the most was that pure sulphur forms only under very specific conditions, which are hard to find on the part of Mars where the Curiosity rover made the discovery.

However, scientists agree that if not for the rover's unexpected change of course and its crash involving the ill-fated rock, it would have taken them a long time to find sources of pure sulphur on Mars.

Now, researchers will focus on determining how, considering our knowledge of Mars, sulphur could have ended up there.