Perseverance Rover latest discovery indicates Mars is electrically active

NASA Perseverance Rover's has detected 'mini-lightning' on Mars, indicating that the Red Planet is electrically active.

NASA Perseverance Rover's has detected “mini-lightning” on Mars, indicating that the Red Planet is electrically active.

In recordings obtained by Perseverance Rover, scientists have identified, for the first time, electrical discharges captured during the Red Planet's wild dust events and whirling dust devils – not once, but 55 times over two Martian years of observation, ScienceAlert.com reported.

The dusty weather in which these events appeared reveals the specific conditions required to generate electricity in the thin, bone-dry atmosphere of Mars – long suspected but never directly demonstrated until now.

At the time when different Mars missions are exploring presence of water on the desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous atmosphere, Perseverance Rover's discovery adds a new hope regarding signs of life on planets other than Earth.

"A Major Discovery"

The six-wheeled Rover is exploring Mars since 2021 at a locale called Jezero Crater in its northern hemisphere. The Rover picked up these electrical discharges in audio and electromagnetic recordings made by its SuperCam remote-sensing instrument, news agency Reuters reported.

"These discharges represent a major discovery, with direct implications for Martian atmospheric chemistry, climate, habitability and the future of robotic and human exploration," said planetary scientist Baptiste Chide of the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology in France, lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"The electrical charges required for these discharges are likely to influence dust transport on Mars, a process fundamental to the planet's climate and one that remains poorly understood. What's more, these electrostatic discharges could pose a risk to the electronic equipment of current robotic missions - and even a hazard for astronauts who one day will explore the Red Planet," Chide said.

The researchers analysed 28 hours of microphone recordings made by the rover over a span of two Martian years, detecting 55 electrical discharges, usually associated with dust devils and dust storm fronts.

1st Meteorite on Mars

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has als found a possible meteorite on the surface of the Red Planet.

Perseverance spotted an unusual "sculpted, high-standing" rock nestled among "low-lying, flat and fragmented surrounding rocks", which got the attention of scientists right away, according to a blog post posted November 13 on NASA's website written by Candice Bedford, a research scientist at Purdue University.

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory rover spotted Phippsaksla on September 2, initially using the left Mastcam-Z camera high on the rover's mast, according to Space.com.

Perseverance Rover later used its laser SuperCam to show that the nearly three-foot-long (31 inches, or 81 centimeters) rock is made of iron and nickel, which matches what we know about the composition of cores of large asteroids in the solar system.

If its origin is confirmed, this would be Perseverance's first meteorite find since arriving at the Red Planet on February 18, 2021.

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