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Nasa S Perseverance Rover Hears Lightning Sounds On Mars Ap News

Bonisiwe Shabane
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nasa s perseverance rover hears lightning sounds on mars ap news

This image provided by NASA, shows a selfie of their Perseverance Mars rover, on July 23, 2024. The image is made up of 62 individual images that were stitched together. (NASA via AP, file) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The crackling of electrical discharges was captured by a microphone on the rover, a French-led team reported Wednesday.

The researchers documented 55 instances of what they call “mini lightning” over two Martian years, primarily during dust storms and dust devils. Almost all occurred on the windiest Martian sols, or days, during dust storms and dust devils. Just inches (centimeters) in size, the electrical arcs occurred within 6 feet (2 meters) of the microphone perched atop the rover’s tall mast, part of a system for examining Martian rocks via camera and... Sparks from the electrical discharges — akin to static electricity here on Earth — are clearly audible amid the noisy wind gusts and dust particles smacking the microphone. Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The crackling of electrical discharges was captured by a microphone on the rover, a French-led team reported Wednesday.

The researchers documented 55 instances of what they call “mini lightning” over two Martian years, primarily during dust storms and dust devils. Almost all occurred on the windiest Martian sols, or days, during dust storms and dust devils. Just inches (centimeters) in size, the electrical arcs occurred within 6 feet (2 meters) of the microphone perched atop the rover’s tall mast, part of a system for examining Martian rocks via camera and... Sparks from the electrical discharges — akin to static electricity here on Earth — are clearly audible amid the noisy wind gusts and dust particles smacking the microphone. Scientists have been looking for electrical activity and lightning at Mars for half a century, said the study’s lead author Baptiste Chide, of the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse. November 27, 2025 / 4:31 PM EST / CBS/AP

Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA's Perseverance rover. The crackling of electrical discharges was captured by a microphone on the rover, a French-led team reported Wednesday. The researchers documented 55 instances of "mini lightning" over two Martian years, primarily during dust storms and dust devils. Almost all occurred on the windiest Martian sols, or days, during dust storms and dust devils. Just inches in size, the electrical arcs occurred within 6 feet of the microphone perched atop the rover's tall mast, part of a system for examining Martian rocks via camera and lasers. Sparks from the electrical discharges — akin to static electricity here on Earth — are clearly audible amid the noisy wind gusts and dust particles smacking the microphone.

Listen as a dust devil sweeps past the Perseverance rover, producing tiny pops of thunder as it generates sparks of static electricity in the dry Martian air. A microphone on the 'head' of NASA's Perseverance rover has recorded the sounds of dust devils whirling by, but it also picked up a surprise — distinct snaps and pops indicating that tiny sparks... Here on Earth, there is an average of 100 lightning discharges every second around the world. These are most commonly produced by thunderstorms, and are the result of a charge buildup in the clouds due to ice crystals and snow pellets brushing past each other as they flow along the... The exact same effect can occur in dust storms, though, due to friction between the tiny dust particles swirling around in the air. This is known as the triboelectric effect.

Given how dusty Mars is, and how frequently the planet experiences dust storms and dust devils, scientists figured that this must be going on all the time there. NASA's Perseverance rover captured audio of dozens of lightning-like electric discharges. (Supplied: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) Researchers say more than 50 instances of lightning on Mars were detected on audio recordings from the Perseverance rover — the first time such data has been captured. The team suggested dust devils and dust storms could be to blame, mimicking a similar electricity-producing mechanism that also happens on Earth. While experts said the audio evidence was "persuasive", photo or video evidence of the actual flashes would be needed to confirm lightning on Mars.

After decades of searching, it seems that lightning does occur on Mars — but it's nothing like the large bolts we experience on Earth. A microphone on the 'head' of NASA's Perseverance rover has recorded the sounds of dust devils whirling by, but it also picked up a surprise — distinct snaps and pops indicating that tiny sparks... Here on Earth, there is an average of 100 lightning discharges every second around the world. These are most commonly produced by thunderstorms, and are the result of a charge buildup in the clouds due to ice crystals and snow pellets brushing past each other as they flow along the... The exact same effect can occur in dust storms, though, due to friction between the tiny dust particles swirling around in the air. This is known as the triboelectric effect.

Given how dusty Mars is, and how frequently the planet experiences dust storms and dust devils, scientists figured that this must be going on all the time there. This 20-km-high dust devil was spotted swirling across the Martian surface by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 14, 2012. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA) In a study published Nov. 26 in Nature, Baptiste Chide, a postdoctoral fellow in planetary acoustics at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and his team report what they believe to be the first evidence of electrical activity in the martian... The team found 55 separate events, most of which aligned with dust storms and dust devils.

The lightning the team identified on Mars is distinct from the lightning we think of during thunderstorms at home on Earth. Thunderstorm lightning is generated by the collision of ascending water droplets and descending ice in clouds. The collision pulls electrons off the water, resulting in a negative charge at the top of the cloud and a positive charge at the bottom of the cloud. This difference in charges generates an electric field. When the charge of the field overwhelms the insulation provided by the atmosphere, lightning is discharged as a result. The discharges discovered on Mars, however, are triboelectric — caused not by water and ice, but by friction between dry dust particles.

On Earth, deserts generate electricity through friction when particles of sand and dust become electrified as they rub against one another — a process called “triboelectric charging.” Scientists have long theorized that Mars’ atmosphere... However, no evidence of electric activity has been found. The results of this new study alter our understanding of the martian atmosphere, while also offering implications for habitability and future exploration. “This study opens a notable field of investigation for the atmosphere of Mars, as its electrical activity was largely confined to hypotheses in the absence of any in situ evidence,” the authors state in... Since the Perseverance rover’s landing at Jezero Crater in February 2021, its SuperCam instrument has been recording the sounds of the martian atmosphere and the rover’s operation with its onboard microphone. The microphone doesn’t run nonstop.

Ten atmospheric recordings of up to 167 seconds are captured each month at varying times. The instrument also periodically records the rover’s own mechanical sounds to monitor the performance of subsystems. Scientists believe they have recorded electrical activity in the Martian atmosphere for the first time, suggesting the planet is capable of lightning. Nasa's Perseverance rover, which touched down on Mars in 2021, was sent to search for signs of biology and has spent the last four years exploring the Jezero Crater region. Electrical discharges nicknamed "mini lightning" were picked up from audio and electromagnetic recordings made by the rover's SuperCam instrument. Scientists hope new instruments for measuring atmospheric discharges and more-sensitive cameras could be sent to Mars to try to confirm the findings.

A team of researchers from France analysed 28 hours of microphone recordings made by the Nasa rover over two Martian years (or 1,374 Earth days).

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