There\u2019s an electrifying new development in Mars science. NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has just captured proof of a weather phenomenon that was long suspected, but until now, never observed: electric discharges that brew within the dust devils that torment Mars\u2019 surface.<\/p>\n
The discovery, described in a new study<\/a> in the journal Nature, confirms that lightning discharges occur in the Martian atmosphere. The dust devils<\/a> that the discharges appear in are a common fixture on the Red Planet. Like on Earth, they\u2019re whirlwinds created by rapidly rising columns of warm air heated by their proximity to the ground, shooting their way through the cool air which falls to take the rising warm air\u2019s place.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Mars specifically, it was suspected that dust trapped in this whirlwind whips together to create a static charge through friction, a manifestation of the same so-called triboelectric effect that causes a spark after you shuffle across a carpet and touch a metal doorknob.<\/p>\n \u201cTriboelectric charging of sand and snow particles is well documented on Earth, particularly in desert regions, but it rarely results in actual electrical discharges,\u201d lead author Baptiste Chide, a member of the Perseverance science team and a planetary scientist at L\u2019Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Plan\u00e9tologie in France, said in a NASA statement<\/a> about the research. \u201cOn Mars, the thin atmosphere makes the phenomenon far more likely, as the amount of charge required to generate sparks is much lower than what is required in Earth\u2019s near-surface atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n That lightning on Mars had eluded detection until now was a long source of frustration to Mars scientists, as it had already been established to take place on other planets like Saturn and Jupiter, which are far more distant and aren\u2019t observed up close by robots as we do the Red Planet.<\/p>\n The finding required some astonishing good luck. The detection was made by a microphone on the rover\u2019s SuperCam instrument designed to analyze the acoustics of Martian rocks zapped by the SuperCam laser \u2014 or in other words, to record sound, not zips of static discharges.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the instrument kept picking up more and more electrical disturbances, in all logging 55 since its mission began in 2021, NASA said. Sixteen of them were recorded when a dust devil passed directly over the rover<\/a>. Because the the number of discharges didn\u2019t increase during the planet\u2019s frequent dust storms, the scientists surmise that it must be coming from the dust devils instead \u2014 which, in another fortunate twist, happened to pass by the rover more often than anyone anticipated, allowing them to confirm the suspicion.<\/p>\n The discovery has exciting implications. Lightning can cause unique chemical reactions and affect the chemical balance of the planet\u2019s surface, perhaps altering the odds of creating complex compounds \u2014 and possibly even organic molecules.<\/p>\n