Weekly - Curiosity rover accidentally discovers Sulfur on Mars
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Curiosity rover accidentally discovers Sulfur on Mars
Last week, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover accidentally discovered pure Sulfur on Mars. The rover drove over a rock and accidentally cracked it open. The rock was found to contain yellow crystals of pure Sulfur which have never been seen before on Mars.
Gaia spacecraft returns to operations after severe damage
ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, launched in 2013 to map over a billion stars, faced an unexpected disaster after more than 10 years. In April, a tiny particle smaller than a grain of sand struck Gaia at a tremendous speed, damaging its sensors. Despite being designed to withstand micro-meteorite impacts, the particle hit at just the right angle and speed to cause significant damage. In May, a powerful solar storm further damaged the sensors. Since then scientists have been working on ways to fix the issue. While the spacecraft cannot be fixed from so far away, the software in it was tweaked to minimise false detections. The spacecraft finally became operational recently.
