Some of the greatest discoveries in the history of science were made by accident. And of course Martian rovers They are no exception. If not, let them tell you to curiositya robot that has been exploring the Red Planet since August 2012. During one of his walks in May last year, he tripped over a stone and accidentally broke it. When it fragmented, it left behind a shiny interior. yellowhas become a treasure for scientists.
No, it’s not gold. It’s yellow, and if it glows, it’s because it can tell us a lot about the history of Mars. In fact, what Curiosity discovered was elemental sulfur. That is, pure sulfur.
He Gediz Wallis ChannelWhere was the stone? sulfates. These are the salts that contain sulfur and other elements and they are formed when several minerals mix and the water around them evaporates. At some point in Mars’ past, this channel was a river bed, so the presence of sulfates is not unusual. However, pure sulfur is something else. Its formation is subject to only a very narrow range of possibilities and does not correspond to what we know about Mars or the Gediz Valley channel. That’s why the discovery of Curiosity, published by NASA last July, is a great discovery.
Curiosity Accident on Mars
A great discovery made by chance is called a fluke. That’s what Curiosity achieved with this simple mistake. The stone he tripped over was not really sand, but stone weighing 899 kg, which broke from the impact. Inside, this curious yellow substance attracted the attention of scientists on Earth, who soon determined that it was sulfur.
The most amazing and interesting thing about all this is that the Gediz Vallis channel It’s full of stones like that. Therefore, it would not be at all strange if they all had such an interesting sulfur interior.
As one of the scientists responsible for Curiosity explained in a NASA statement, Ashwin Vasavadafinding sulfur on Mars is almost like finding an oasis in the desert. This is something unique, and its uncertain origins can give us a lot of interesting information.
A very necessary thing
Sulfur is one of the elements necessary for life. In fact, without him two of amino acids They serve as building blocks for proteins. This would mean that some proteins necessary for the survival of living things could not be synthesized.
This is the first thing that makes Curiosity’s discovery interesting, although it is not the first important element of life discovered on Mars. In fact, just because the necessary elements for life exist does not mean that life exists or existed in the past. Just there is a possibilitybut this is not a fact.
Therefore, the most interesting thing about this discovery is that it can give us new information about the formation of Mars and other planets in the solar system. If sulfur had formed, as is still believed, it could not have appeared where it did. This is truly intriguing and sets off an investigation that is sure to yield many interesting answers. And all because of a random trip. This is interesting. We humans trip over the same stone several times and usually don’t take advantage of it. Curiosity stumbled just once and made an unprecedented discovery.
Source: Hiper Textual
