Dust devils create electrical sparks and mini-sonic booms on Mars; watch NASA's video here

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has recorded the sounds of electrical discharges —sparks — and mini-sonic booms in dust devils on Mars. Long theorized, the phenomenon has now been confirmed through audio and electromagnetic recordings captured by the rover’s SuperCam microphone.

"A frequent occurrence on the Red Planet, dust devils form from rising and rotating columns of warm air. Air near the planet’s surface becomes heated by contact with the warmer ground and rises through the denser, cooler air above. As other air moves along the surface to take the place of the rising warmer air, it begins to rotate. When the incoming air rises into the column, it picks up speed like spinning ice skaters bringing their arms closer to their body. The air rushing in also picks up dust, and a dust devil is born," said NASA in a press statement.

Watch video here:

SuperCam has recorded 55 distinct electrical events over the course of the mission, beginning on the mission’s 215thMartian day, or sol, in 2021. Sixteen have been recorded when dust devils passed directly over the rover.

Perseverance’s SuperCam instrument carries a microphone to analyze the sounds of the instrument’s laser when it zaps rocks, but the team has also captured the sounds of wind and even the first audio recording of a Martian dust devil. Scientists knew it could pick up electromagnetic disturbance (static) and sounds of electrical discharges in the atmosphere. What they didn’t know was if such events happened frequently enough, or if the rover would ever be close enough, to record one. Then they began to assess data amassed over the mission, and it didn’t take long to find the telltale sounds of electrical activity.