NASA’s Perseverance robot microphone was able to pick up the sound of a dust devil on the Red Planet.
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This is the first time the space agency has been able to make such a recording, as such weather events are difficult to predict.
The dust devils, called Dust devils by NASA, are also present on Earth, but can reach up to eight kilometers high on Mars.
At the same time that Perseverance’s microphone was able to record the sound of the dust devil, its weather sensors were also able to record data related to wind, temperature and dust from the storm.
Scientists were then able to combine sound, image and atmospheric data to determine the height (118 meters), width (25 meters) and speed (19 km/h) of the meteorological phenomenon.
This combination of data could help scientists determine what causes dust to be lifted from the surface of Mars during these events, something they still don’t know.