Scientists are constantly looking for any signs of Mars life, and although there have been many discoveries over the years, a person made in an accident in the rover of curiosity over the past year, it can just be the last clue that we need to strengthen how likely it is Mars to support life at some point.
Rover’s casual discovery of curiosity
While Curiosity Rover is often looking for specific things on Mars to supplement our current knowledge of the planet, it does not mean that it accidentally cannot find something incredible. A few months ago, as the curiosity was walking around the Red Planet, she accidentally moved over a rock and left it. Within this scale was something that had never been seen on Mars before that moment: yellow sulfur crystals.
This may not sound too incredible in itself, but NASA scientists were amazed at the discovery and what it was. Stones made of pure sulfur should not theoretically exist on the surface of Mars based on our previous understanding of the planet’s environment and how it exists in the past. It’s like finding Seashells in the wilderness for the first time – it reshapes your whole understanding of what this desert was in the past.
That is why finding these odorless crystals is such a big deal.
What does it mean for the yellow sulfur to be on Mars?
So, curiosity found some bright, sulfur -free sulfur crystals in a rock. What does that mean? Well, of course, we don’t know precisely What it means immediately, but we know what it can point out. Currently, scientists are concerned primarily about how these crystals are formed and how they can exist with other types of Mars deposits that show a more full water past.
Now Mars has always had sulfate -rich regions. In fact, curiosity explores these regions since 2023. There are different types of sulfates, but those we have found on Mars are formed when the water evaporates and mineral salts are left behind. So far, they have been found only as ingredients of sulfur -based minerals. The sulfur that curiosity has recently discovered on this rock is pure elementary sulfur, which is the first on Mars.
The elementary sulfur is very different from the variety of hydrogen sulphide. You can get all the specifics here, but for now, just know that elementary sulfur is odorless and requires extremely specific circumstances. These circumstances have never been related to Mars, which means that scientists should re -evaluate their understanding of Mars’s past. It would be like finding the remains of a tree in a place where the trees have never been seen so far. This completely changes our understanding of the history of location.
In addition, the presence of this elementary sulfur can serve as a new indicator of the life of Mars.
What does sulfur have to do with alien life?
Sulfur does not necessarily mean that there is or guaranteed an extraterrestrial life of Mars. Our extraterrestrial hunt is still underway. However, this has some consequences for the potential of Mars life. There are many microorganisms on Earth that use sulfur compounds as a source of energy. Sulfur compounds found on Mars, even before this most discovery, have always raised some questions about the ancient Martian habitats, and we have known for some time that Mars was once a watery planet.
In the end, the water affects the way sulfates are formed, so the sulfates we have already discovered proved that Mars once had water. Water is defined as a critical ingredient for all forms of biology that humanity understands. However, pure sulfur shows some unique conditions that can extend the possibilities of how the life of microbials in the past of the Red Planet may look like, not to mention more information about Mars hydrothermal systems and what ancient habitats have existed before.
More substantially, pure sulfur is a critical component of life we know it, playing a major role in protein synthesis. It is also known that it is produced in chemical reactions in extreme earthquakes such as hydrothermal openings in the deep ocean. So the presence of elementary sulfur on Mars not only expands the list of potential habitats that the planet may have supported in the past, but also increases the likelihood of the planet supporting life.
Needless to say, a whole new sphere of theoretical possibilities is opening. Although it is still impossible to say whether life has ever existed on Mars for sure, the discovery of elementary sulfur makes it even more likely than before. To continue to learn more, curiosity breaks down dozens of holes in sulfur fields of Mars, digging new samples to further reveal the chemical history of the Red Planet.
In the end, the search for an extraterrestrial life continues to be this discovery. We still cannot say for sure whether there is an extraterrestrial life outside or if there was an extraterrestrial life in space, on Mars or otherwise. But with every new discovery we make, our understanding of the universe is growing and it seems increasingly that at least at one point there was a life forms beyond the earth. If anything, we learned even more about Mars.