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NASA’s Curiosity rover has made a “mind-blowing” discovery on Mars that scientists say “shouldn’t be there.”

The one-ton rover discovered yellowish-green crystals of pure sulfur while searching for chemical evidence that the Red Planet was once habitable.

While sulfur-bearing minerals have been observed on the Martian world, elemental sulfur itself has never been seen before.

Curiosity accidentally broke up white rocks as it traveled through the Gediz Vallis channel, revealing the “strange” structures that add to the growing evidence that Mars was once a habitable world.

Previous research suggests that sulfur may have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth more than four billion years ago, when the atmosphere it was rich in sulfur and carbon, which were released by volcanic activity.

Microbes metabolize sulfur isotopes, release oxygen, and begin the process of saturating the atmosphere with oxygen, known as the Great Oxygenation Event.

But scientists haven’t said Curiosity’s discovery is an indication of past life on Mars.

The find added to growing evidence for other life-sustaining elements identified on Mars, including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus.

What the discovery shows is that water flows on Mars, which is also a key ingredient for life.

Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, said: “Finding a field of rocks made of pure sulfur 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.”

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The groundbreaking discovery was made on May 30 while Curiosity was drifting off-road in the Gediz Vallis channel, a groove that curves down part of the three-mile-high Mount Sharp — at the base of which the rover has been climbing since 2014.

The six-wheeled rover has already detected sulfur on Mars, but only mixed with other minerals such as magnesium and calcium.

When combined with other elements, sulfur emits a pungent odor, but pure sulfur found on Mars is odorless.

NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California first identified a collection of white rocks and issued instructions to Curiosity to explore.

The rover sent a close-up image of the white rocks back to Earth, which included an ear of crushed rock near Curiosity’s wheels.

And then the team noticed the yellow crystals.

“I think this is the strangest find of the whole mission and the most unexpected,” Vasavada told CNN.

“I must say there is a lot of luck here. Not every rock has something interesting inside.

While the sulfur rocks were too small and fragile to be sampled with the drill, a large rock called “Mammoth Lakes” was spotted nearby.

Rover engineers had to search for a section of rock that would allow safe drilling and find a place to park on the loose, sloping surface.

After Curiosity drilled its 41st hole using the powerful drill at the end of the rover’s seven-foot robotic arm, the six-wheeled scientist sifted the powdered rock into instruments in its belly for further analysis so scientists could determine what materials the rock was made of. .

“No one had pure sulfur in their bingo card,” Vasavada said.

Sulfur rocks typically have a “beautiful, translucent and crystalline texture,” the scientists explained.

But the group seen on Mars has been sandblasted over millions of years, dulling the bright yellow and making them appear reddish like the surrounding landscape.

However, the find added to growing evidence for other life-supporting elements identified on Mars, including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus.

The Gediz Vallis channel is one of the main reasons the science team wanted to visit this part of Mars. The region is located just south of the Martian equator.

Scientists believe the channel was carved by flows of liquid water and debris that left two miles down the mountainside below the channel.

The goal is to develop a better understanding of how this landscape changed billions of years ago, and recent clues have provided insights.

Since Curiosity arrived in the canal earlier this year, scientists have investigated whether ancient floods or landslides built the large mounds of debris that rise from the canal’s bottom.

Recent clues from Curiosity suggest that both played a role: some piles were likely left behind by turbulent flows of water and debris, while others appear to be the result of more localized landslides.

These conclusions are based on stones found in the debris mounds. While the stones carried by the water current become rounded like river rocks, some of the debris mounds are punctured with more angular rocks that dry avalanches may have deposited.

Finally, the water soaks up all the material that settles here. Chemical reactions caused by the water bleached the white “halo” shapes in some of the rocks. Erosion from wind and sand revealed these halo shapes over time.

“This was not a quiet period on Mars,” said Becky Williams, a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and deputy principal investigator for Curiosity’s mast camera.

“There was exciting activity here. We look at numerous streams down the channel, including vigorous floods and boulder-rich streams.