For years, scientists staring at Mars through the eyes of orbiting spacecraft noticed something strange: a mysterious signal in the light spectrum that didn’t match any known mineral. That puzzling ...

A team of scientists studying strange spectral lines observed on Mars may have discovered a previously unknown mineral. For nearly two decades, scientists have been receiving data from the Mars ...

NASA's Curiosity rover explores a sulfate region in Mars' Gale Crater in August 2022, with upper Mount Sharp in the distance. Scientists say the discovery of siderite, a type of iron carbonate, could ...

August 5, 2025, Mountain View, CA – New research published in Nature Communications identifies an iron sulfate on Mars that may represent a brand-new mineral. Sulfur is common on Mars and combines ...

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history of wet ...

When it comes to hunting for evidence of ancient life on Mars, some key features that scientists want to explore are areas with high levels of sulfate minerals. These salts form in the presence of ...

A groundbreaking study published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences suggests that a remote rock quarry in Algeria may help scientists detect fossilized life on Mars. The research, led by ...

Because oxygen-bearing sulfate minerals trap and preserve signals from Earth's atmosphere, scientists closely study how they form. Sulfates are stable over billions of years, so their oxygen isotopes ...