Nasa’s Perseverance rover captured the sound of a dust devil on Mars, the audio of which was released by scientists on Tuesday. Swivelling at a speed of 40 kmph, the sound could be deciphered, having similarity with dust devils on the earth.
However, it was comparatively quieter since Mars’ atmosphere makes more muted sounds and less forceful winds. The dust devil came and went over Perseverance quickly last year, thus the short length of the audio, the University of Toulouse’s Naomi Murdoch, lead author of the study appearing in Nature Communications, was quoted as saying by news agency AP.
The navigation camera placed on the rover captured images, while the weather-monitoring instrument gathered data.
These recordings allow scientists to study the Martian wind, atmospheric turbulence and dust movement as never before, Murdoch said. The results “demonstrate just how valuable acoustic data can be in space exploration,” reported AP.
