NASA Perseverance Rover Captures First Audio of Martian Dust Devil

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently recorded the sounds of a dust devil on the Red Planet.

While the miniature cyclones, caused by heating of air close to the ground, are most often associated with sandy deserts or barren terrain on Earth, scientists have been studying Martian dust devils since the 1970s.

“Nearly every Mars rover has experienced them in some way,” says(Opens in a new window) Roger Wiens, principal investigator of the Perseverance SuperCam, which features the first microphone ever sent to another planet.

Spirit and Opportunity, in fact, “benefitted in a big way from the turbulent events,” Wiens says. The devices’ solar panels were expected to lose power within the first year due to dust accumulation, but strong whirlwinds occasionally cleared them, allowing the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission to remain active long after its estimated expiration date.

Conversely, NASA’s InSight landed in a less turbulent part of the Red Planet, eventually losing power without the devils’ clearing action.

Perseverance, however, marks the first audio recording(Opens in a new window) of a dust devil passing over a rover, its tiny grains beating the motor vehicle as they tumble past.

The windstorm passed directly over the rover in September 2021, allowing its SuperCam to capture sound and video; Percy’s weather sensors, meanwhile, collected atmospheric data, measuring wind, pressure, temperature, and dust. Based on that data, researchers estimate the dust devil was 82 feet wide by at least 387 feet tall, moving at about 12mph.

Perseverance has been active on Mars since February 2021, setting distance records, collecting rock samples, and snapping selfies. The rover is now set to drop off backup samples from selected Martian rocks, which will eventually be returned to Earth in 2033.