Is there lightning on Mars?
- Published
If you fancy a job as a weather presenter on Mars, you might just be in luck! As scientists think they've found evidence of "mini-lightning" on the red planet.
Nasa's Perseverance Rover landed on the red planet in 2021, with the aim of searching for past life.
Recently, the rover has discovered that Mars' atmosphere is electrically active, because it found electrical discharges.
The discharges - nicknamed 'mini-lightning' - were picked up from audio and electromagnetic recordings made by the rover's SuperCam instrument.
It's the first recording of electrical activity in the Martian atmosphere - which is a big deal!
Could these rocks show there was once life on Mars?
- Published10 September
Why the planet Mars is more like a 'rocky road' chocolate bar
- Published3 September
The school project aiming for space launch
- Published6 August
Is Mars' lightning like lightning as we know it?
Not quite.
Planetary scientist Ralph Lorenz described is as a "small spark, perhaps a few millimeters long, not really lightning. It sounded like a spark or whip-crack".
However, planetary scientist Baptiste Chide says it is a "major discovery" as it affects the atmosphere of Mars, it's climate, whether life could survive there and the "future of robotic and human exploration".
Three dust devils tracking across the Martian surface, captured by a camera on board the European Space Agency ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
The researchers analysed 28 hours of microphone recordings made by the rover over two Martian years.
They found that electrical discharges were normally associated with dust devils and dust storm fronts.
Dust devils are small whirlwinds that form from the ground, and their internal movements give rise to the electrical discharges.
The "mini-lighting" is "caused by the friction of tiny dust grains rubbing against each other in the air, which builds up electrons and then releases their charge as electrical arcs", says planetary scientist Baptiste Chide.
Mars now joins Earth, Saturn and Jupiter as planets known to have atmospheric electrical activity.
The music-making robot on Mars
It's not just electricity sounds that the rover has been picking up.
The SuperCam recorded the very first Martian sounds in 2021, shortly after Perseverance landed.
Since then, it's compiled a playlist of over 30 hours of sounds from the Red Planet.
The howl of the wind, the whirring blades of the rover, and now electrostatic discharges! Would you have a listen?