By: Ivan Wang

The curiosity rover is one of the many devices NASA has sent into space, with the curiosity rover going to Mars. It has been there since August 6th, 2012, and it has been taking pictures, collecting samples and more, to prove that there was life on Mars at one point. However, out of all of the discoveries the rover made so far, the most recent one is the most surprising.

So, what did NASA find? Well on May 30, the rover ran over a seemingly normal space rock only to find some extremely rare rocks beneath it. What makes this discovery so strange? Well, it’s strange because those rocks shouldn’t even be able to be there, according to our current knowledge of Mars.

Before we go into why those rocks shouldn’t be there, let’s see where the curiosity rover made this discovery. Since October 2023, it has been exploring a part of Mars rich with sulfates, which is salt that forms when sulfur mixes with minerals in water. The rare rocks are made of sulfur. Now, you might be thinking,’that means the rare rocks aren’t actually rare?’ In fact they are still rare because they are the first rocks to be made of pure sulfur. These rocks were specifically found on Mount Sharp, a three-mile tall mountain, which the rover has been climbing since 2014. NASA says that each layer of the mountain represents a different period of Mars.

Other than the discovery of those rocks, the Curiosity rover has also taken the first selfie on Mars, found past habitable places on Mars, and measured the amount of radiation on Mars.

Sources Used:https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cd1r2r68mpvo