USA: For the first time, NASA's Perseverance rover has recorded what the "dust devil" looks like on Mars. The six-wheeled robotic explorer recorded this sound using the onboard SuperCam microphone on September 27, 2021, the 215th Martian day of the mission.
With a speed of 19 km/h, the "dust devil" is believed to be 82 feet wide and at least 387 feet tall.
Dust storms have been observed on Mars, but they have never been heard before. Perseverance is also the first spacecraft to obtain Martian regolith.
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By 2030, NASA and the ESA want to return collected samples of Mars to the planet for deeper investigation. Both the Artemis campaign and the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission are a part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration strategy.
According to Naomi Murdoch, lead author of the study, there was only a one in 200 chance of recording dust-devil audio. He continued, "Of the 84 minutes of audio the rover gathered over its first year, there is only one dust devil recording."
Researchers claim that while the dust devils of Mars are similar to those heard on Earth, it is quieter due to the thin atmosphere of Mars.
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Every few days, the SuperCam microphone on the rover is activated for about three minutes, and it was only by chance that the dust devil was photographed.
The rover picked up 308 dust pings as the Martian dust devil ran, which is evident in the brief audio clip. The results "show how valuable acoustic data can be in space exploration", according to the researchers.
The rover's left navigation camera, weather sensors (measuring wind, pressure, temperature, and dust), and microphones all recorded the dust devil at the same time.
This made it possible for researchers to combine audio, visual and atmospheric data to model the shape of the dust devil. The Perseverance and Curiosity Mars Rovers are regularly monitoring these dust storms.
The first sounds ever heard on Mars were captured by the SuperCam microphone and included wind, dust devils, rover noise and laser zap.
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From a distance of more than 20 feet, it can detect the chemical and mineralogical composition of regions of Mars the size of a pencil point.
It can take color images and is an improved version of the ChemCam on the Curiosity Mars rover.