Latest news with #sulfur
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Curiosity Cracked Open a Rock on Mars And Discovered a Huge Surprise
A rock on Mars spilled a surprising yellow treasure after Curiosity accidentally cracked through its unremarkable exterior. When the rover rolled its 899-kilogram (1,982-pound) body over the fragile lump of mineral in May last year the deposit broke open, revealing yellow crystals of elemental sulfur: brimstone. Although sulfates are fairly common on Mars, this represents the first time sulfur has been found on the red planet in its pure elemental form. Related: What's even more exciting is that the Gediz Vallis Channel, where Curiosity found the rock, is littered with objects that look suspiciously similar to the sulfur rock before it got fortuitously crushed – suggesting that, somehow, elemental sulfur may be abundant there in some places. "Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert," said Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in July 2024. "It shouldn't be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting." Sulfates are salts that form when sulfur, usually in compound form, mixes with other minerals in water. When the water evaporates, the minerals mix and dry out, leaving the sulfates behind. These sulfate minerals can tell us a lot about Mars, such as its water history, and how it has weathered over time. Pure sulfur, on the other hand, only forms under a very narrow set of conditions, which are not known to have occurred in the region of Mars where Curiosity made its discovery. There are, to be fair, a lot of things we don't know about the geological history of Mars, but the discovery of scads of pure sulfur just hanging about on the Martian surface suggests that there's something pretty big that we're not aware of. Sulfur, it's important to understand, is an essential element for all life. It's usually taken up in the form of sulfates, and used to make two of the essential amino acids living organisms need to make proteins. Since we've known about sulfates on Mars for some time, the discovery doesn't tell us anything new in that area. We're yet to find any signs of life on Mars, anyway. But we do keep stumbling across the remains of bits and pieces that living organisms would find useful, including chemistry, water, and past habitable conditions. Stuck here on Earth, we're fairly limited in how we can access Mars. Curiosity's instruments were able to analyze and identify the sulfurous rocks in the Gediz Vallis Channel, but if it hadn't taken a route that rolled over and cracked one open, it could have been sometime until we found the sulfur. The next step will be to figure out exactly how, based on what we know about Mars, that sulfur may have come to be there. That's going to take a bit more work, possibly involving some detailed modeling of Mars's geological evolution. Meanwhile, Curiosity will continue to collect data on the same. The Gediz Vallis channel is an area rich in Martian history, an ancient waterway whose rocks now bear the imprint of the ancient river that once flowed over them, billions of years ago. Curiosity drilled a hole in one of the rocks, taking a powdered sample of its interior for chemical analysis, and is still trundling its way deeper along the channel, to see what other surprises might be waiting just around the next rock. An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024. First Visual Evidence Confirms A Star Exploded Twice Largest Mars Rock on Earth Could Sell For US$4 Million Here's How to Watch Mercury Photobomb Your 4th of July Fireworks
Bloomberg
01-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
US Startup Bets on Battery Boom With Northvolt Polish Purchase
California startup Lyten is buying a Polish energy-storage factory from Northvolt AB in a bid to become a global leader with its sulfur-based batteries. Lyten, which last year bought another Northvolt's plant in the US, is planning to use the Polish unit as a hub for its international operations. The Swedish manufacturer filed for bankruptcy earlier this year as it expanded too fast and run out of cash.
Bloomberg
19-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
The World's Most Profitable Nickel Plants Face Cost Challenge
A pioneering group of Indonesian nickel smelters with the world's lowest production costs has been hit by a jump in the price of a key raw material, crimping their profitability just as the market is saddled with a glut. The price of sulfur, a chemical used to produce acid, has more than tripled in price over the past year, driven by increased demand. That's a headache for producers in Indonesia that use high-pressure acid leaching, known as HPAL. The breakthrough technique enables the smelters to extract metal from low-grade ore with chemicals, avoiding the need for blast furnaces.
CBS News
04-06-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Residents express health concerns after elevated sulfur levels reported at Clairton Coke Works
Elevated sulfur levels reported at the Clairton Coke Works plant this week have some residents concerned for their health. It comes after the Allegheny County Health Department said repairs were being done inside the plant. The reports indicate there were elevated sulfur levels in coke oven gas while repairs took place within a control room. The incident occurred on June 2 at 7:08 p.m., and it was reported that all equipment was back online on June 3 at 3:05 a.m. The preliminary report notes that during the breakdown, control room five was shut down and bypassed, meaning that coke oven gas was only partially treated by control rooms one and two. Control room five removes harmful chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia from the gas. U.S. Steel has seven days to submit a full report explaining what happened, the Allegheny County Health Department said in a statement. Some residents told KDKA-TV that they're fed up after the latest breakdown at the plant. "It's dangerous. It's toxic and it should be eliminated," said Felix Major, a former Clairton Coke Works plant employee. "A lot of times you can't breathe," Robert Ebo said, a Clairton resident. "And the smell. The smell early in the morning when you're going to work, it smells like poop," Wilhelmina Phillips said, another Clairton resident. According to the ACHD, the breakdown caused a significant spike in hydrogen sulfide levels in coke oven gas. During the breakdown, a spokesperson said hydrogen sulfide levels measured 32 parts per billion. "For H2S, the ability to smell it and the state regulatory level is 5 ppb. Allegheny County is normally below 1 ppb. The highest hourly sulfur dioxide concentration during the breakdown was 47 ppb on June 2 at 10:00 p.m.," the ACHD said in a statement. "Down on State Street where the mill is, you can smell it all the way up here on top of the hill here, yeah, that's how it moves," Major said. "It smells like sulfur. That's exactly what it smells like, sulfur in the air," Phillips said. Phillips said she moved to Clairton 3 ½ years ago from North Carolina and quickly noticed a difference in her health. "I got to wake up in the middle of the night, [and] put Vicks under my nose. I take an inhaler now, and I never had problems with breathing until I moved here to Clairton," Phillips said. Robert Ebo told KDKA-TV that he suffered from COPD. He said he stays inside when the air is polluted. "I think that what they need to do is just get a better handle on things down there than what it really is," Ebo said. "Because they got the money to pay the fines, the billion-dollar company, and they just overlook that. We're the little man." U.S. Steel sent KDKA-TV a statement saying they've been back to normal operation since early Tuesday morning. "U.S. Steel followed all response protocols to ensure the safety of its employees and the community. The Allegheny County Health Department was notified, in accordance with our operating permit," U.S Steel said.
