NASA's Curiosity rover has completed the first-ever detailed X-ray analysis of Martian sand, determining that it contains minerals similar to volcanic soil found at places like the Mauna Kea shield volcano in Hawaii.

Curiosity has been scooping and sampling the Martian regolith at an area called Rocknest for the past month. The probe is starting to live up to its original, official name Mars Science Laboratory, doing lab work that hasn't until now been possible on Mars. No previous lander or rover has been able to perform X-ray diffraction because the machines required for the technique are typically the size of a refrigerator. Engineers were able to shrink the instrument down to roughly the size of a shoebox and make it less power-hungry, allowing it to be packed and sent to Mars on the rover.

"This is truly an exciting time for planetary scientists," said mineralogist David Bish from Indiana University, co-investigator on the CheMin X-ray analysis instrument. "X-ray diffraction patterns are the best method for telling us what minerals are present."

Curiosity recently delivered an aspirin-sized sample of fine soil to CheMin, which was placed in one of the windowed cells seen in the image below. Those cells vibrate 2,000 times a second to shake up the Martian sand, which is then blasted with X-rays. The X-rays penetrate into the tiny grains, determining the spacing of their atoms and uniquely identifying which minerals are present and their quantity.

The adorable cells where tiny samples of Martian soil are placed and vibrated to be bombarded with X-rays and determine their mineralogical makeup. NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

CheMin revealed the presence of crystalline feldspar, pyroxenes, and olivine, which on Earth can be formed from volcanic processes and broken down by weathering, which may include rain and flowing water. Nothing about the analysis was particularly surprising because scientists have in the past had indications of all these minerals on Mars, but it is the first direct measurement of them. Because these fine particles are blown from all over the Martian surface by wind, future analysis will help researchers understand more about the complex geological history of Mars.