Overview
- An international team reports in Nature that 55 events captured over roughly two Martian years match triboelectric discharges detected by Perseverance’s SuperCam microphone.
- The signals were tied to dust devils and moving dust fronts, with MEDA weather data providing context, and analyses ruled out rover self-noise, mere wind, or turbulence.
- Each detection followed a distinctive sequence: an ultra-short electronic interference spike, a millisecond-scale ringdown, then a faint acoustic wave consistent with a tiny thunderclap.
- The fields were far too weak for visible lightning, with most energies estimated between about 0.1 and 150 nanojoules and one larger event attributed to a rover-to-ground discharge.
- Scientists warn the activity could generate oxidants that degrade organic molecules and pose risks to hardware, underscoring the need to map frequency and intensity beyond Jezero crater.