Cape Canaveral, Fla. — What does a dust devil sound like on Mars? A NASA rover happened to have its microphone on when a tower of swirling red dust passed directly above, recording a racket. I was.
It’s the rumbling of gusts of wind up to 25 mph for about 10 seconds, as well as the pinging of hundreds of dust particles against the rover Perseverance. Scientists released the first audio of its kind on Tuesday.
Researchers say Mars’ thin atmosphere dampens sound and dampens winds, making it strikingly similar to Earth’s Dust Devils, but quieter.
Dust devils traversed perseverance so quickly last year that they cut short the length of their voices, said Naomi Murdoch of the University of Toulouse. At the same time, the parked rover’s navigation his cameras captured images and weather monitoring equipment collected the data.
“It was found completely red-handed by Percy,” said co-author German Martinez of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
Filmed over decades on Mars But I’ve never heard of it before, but dust devils are common on the Red Planet.
Murdoch, who helped create the mic, said the mic picked up 308 dust sounds as the dust demons passed by.
Given that the rover’s SuperCam mics are on for less than three minutes every few days, the appearance of the Dust Devil on Sept. 27, 2021, was “definitely lucky,” Murdoch said. says. -200 Chance to capture Dust Devil audio.
Of the 84 minutes collected in the first year, “only one Dust Devil recording,” she wrote in an email from France.
same as this Microphones on Perseverance’s mast provided first sounds from Mars — that is, the Martian wind — immediately after Rover landed in February 2021. it continued The sound of the rover running around and the A companion helicopter, Little Ingenuity, is flying nearby. The Rover’s rock-zapping laser crackle is the main reason why it’s so much more than just a microphone.
According to Murdoch, these records will allow scientists to study Martian winds, atmospheric turbulence and current dust movements like never before. The results “show how valuable acoustic data can be in space exploration.”
Prowling through rocks that may contain traces of ancient microbes, Perseverance collected 18 samples So far at Jezero Crater, which was once a river delta scene. NASA plans to return these samples to Earth 10 years from now. Helicopter His Ingenuity has recorded her 36 flights, with a longest flight time of about 3 minutes.