2025-06-25
Sulfur Crystals from Curiosity and “Disturbed” Rocks and Soils from Perseverance – Stereoscopic Corner #11
Contributed by Mary Friargiu, Brian May, and Claudia Manzoni
During the summer of 2024, Perseverance’s older sibling – the Curiosity Mars Rover exploring Gale crater – made history by driving over a rock, eventually cracking it open, and accidentally discovering pure sulfur crystals – for the first time – on Mars. Elemental sulfur consists only of pure sulfur atoms, and contrary to what we may expect, this kind of sulfur is odorless. NASA scientists affirmed that the area where this particular rock was found is known for being rich in sulfates, yet it is not known if there are any correlations with other sulfur-based minerals in the area.
Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is a versatile color microscopic camera located at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. Its primary function is to capture magnified images of rocks and soil, but it can also take landscape photos and selfies of the rover. Unlike the Mastcam-Z on Perseverance, which is a stereo imaging system with two side-by-side cameras, MAHLI is a single camera. However, scientists create stereo pairs with MAHLI by strategically planning and capturing one image, then slightly moving the arm to take another picture from a slightly different angle. This sequential method allows them to view the same target from different perspectives, enabling a three-dimensional view.
Both Curiosity and Perseverance have crushed numerous small rocks and have created churned-up, exposed subsurface soil patches as their wheels dig in and grind over the surface. Here we feature some great 3-D views of these “disturbed” Red Planet rocks and soils from both Gale and Jezero craters!
Grab your OWL or other stereoscope, cross your eyes, or don your red/blue glasses and enjoy!!!
CURIOSITY Mars Hand Lens Imager 3-D Views of Sulfur Crystals
MAHLI took a series of detailed pictures (publicly available on the Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Raw Images web site) that allowed us to produce these close-up stereoscopic portraits below that we now share with our Stereoscopic Corner readers. We present them, as before, as side-by-side parallel and cross-eyed views, and red/blue anaglyph 3-D’s. Special thanks to Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada and MAHLI Principal Investigator Eileen Yingst for graciously allowing us to share these amazing 3-D views from Perseverance’s sister rover on Mars!
Sol 4205 (June 5, 2024): The large portion of a cracked-open rock reveals unmistakable spots of yellow crystals.
Sol 4206 (June 6, 2024): This close-up view shows the details of the crystals as if we are viewing them through a stereo microscope.
Sol 4207 (June 7, 2024): This stereo offers the closest observation we can obtain of the core of the cracked rock. The structure of the sulfur crystal is particularly enhanced when viewed in 3-D.
Sol 4208 (June 8, 2024): The brightness of the yellow sulfur crystals stands out against the characteristic redness of Martian rocks.
Perseverance Mastcam-Z 3-D Views of Crushed Rocks and Soils
Mastcam-Z has taken numerous left- and right-eye stereo views of crushed rocks and churned-up soils as well. These images (which are publicly available on the Mars Perseverance Raw Images web site) allowed us to produce these example stereoscopic portraits below that we also share with our Stereoscopic Corner readers. Like the Curiosity MAHLI 3-D views above, we present them as side-by-side parallel and cross-eyed views, and red/blue anaglyph 3-D’s.
Sol 566 (Sep. 23, 2022): Perseverance’s wheel crushed up some platy rocks while driving over a small bump in the road.
Sol 800 (May 21, 2023): The Perseverance rover’s wheels pushed and ran over this small rounded stone, which plowed a pile of fine-grained sand as it moved along.
Sol 867 (July 29, 2023): The Perseverance rover appears to have slip-slided across and bowled over several of these rocks as it drove along the loose sand.
Sol 1422 (Feb. 18, 2025): Perseverance’s wheels crushed some small rocks here while driving over them, grinding them down into smaller, brighter cobbles, pebbles, and sand.
Sol 1510 (May 20, 2025): Another example of Perseverance driving over and crushing up some small rocks, leaving small piles of pebbles in its wake.
