Dust devils on Mars may spark lightning — possibly threatening NASA's Perseverance rover
Dust devils on Mars could be crackling with electric currents, according to a new study — and scientists are a little concerned about this because a buildup of such charge could harm rovers rolling along the surface of Mars.
"Electrified dust will adhere to conducting surfaces such as wheels, solar panels and antennas. This may diminish the availability of solar energy, harm communications and complicate the motion of rovers and robots," Yoav Yair, a professor at Reichman University in Israel who studies planetary lightning and was not part of the new study, told Space.com.
The study, led by Varun Sheel, head of the Planetary Science Division at the Physical Research Laboratory in India, uses computer models to show how charges could be distributed inside a Martian dust devil. But before getting to how charge buildup works within Red Planet dust devils, it is key to understand how dust devils form on Mars to begin with.
As the sun heats the Martian surface, air near the surface gets heated. Hot air is lighter than cool air, and so it tends to rise. Pockets of hot air therefore rise through cold air, rapidly forming an upward current. The sudden uprush causes air to speed horizontally inward to the center of a newly forming vortex. If the conditions are right, the vortex completes formation and starts spinning. As the air continues to rise, the vortex gets stretched vertically — sort of like a noodle — making the vortex spin even more quickly. As the vortex picks up speed, the wind swirls and kicks up dust. This creates a dust devil.
In short, dust devils are like little gusts of dust high on adrenaline.
Dust devils are frequent on the dry and dusty Martian surface. Mars has lower gravity and a thinner atmosphere compared to Earth. This allows the wind there to kick up dust higher than wind on Earth can. As a result, Martian dust devils can be thrice as large as their terrestrial analogues. NASA's Viking was the first spacecraft to report dust devils on Mars. Later, Mars rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance captured dust devils zooming across the desolate Martian landscape. In general, such whirlwinds can pose a threat to landers and rovers — however, some rovers have actually benefited from dust devils. In 2005, a benevolent dust devil blew dust off the Spirit rover's solar panels, increasing its power levels. Dust devils on Mars, indeed, are a fascinating and curious phenomenon.
And deepening the intrigue, the new study suggests lightning could be zapping inside these dust devils on Mars.
The most common form of lightning on Earth is the one seen during a thunderstorm. As water and ice churn violently inside a thundercloud, they generate electrical charges due to friction. Once that happens, the atmosphere around the clouds doesn't let these charges flow through easily. This means the charges have nowhere to go and keep building up. At some point, the charges can't hold anymore — and they snap. The charges crack through the atmosphere in the form of an electrically conductive conduit, which we see as lightning.
Interestingly, the new study's team explains, a similar kind of churning happens inside dust devils on both Earth and Mars. In the case of dust devils rather than clouds, however, it's the dust particles that are getting churned instead of ice and water droplets. Again, friction builds up charges, and when the charges can't hold any more, the charges release in the form of lightning.
To be clear, the formation of a strong electric field precedes lightning and no direct observations of electric fields within dust devils on Mars have been found thus far. Instead, the study uses computer models to estimate the possible electric field strength and distribution within a Martian dust devil. This is, in fact, the first study to consider the size distribution of dust particles.
Sheel and his team found that when the atmosphere of Mars is laden with dust, the atmosphere becomes less conductive, prohibiting the flow of charges. This could cause a massive charge buildup in a dust-filled vortex, triggering lightning, he explains.
"The possibility that one day we can discover lightning [in these dust devils] is the most exciting aspect of the results," Sheel told Space.com.
In terms of distribution, the study found that larger, positively-charged particles would settle at the bottom of the dust devil while lighter, negatively-charged ones would rise upward. The team also found that larger dust particles would increase the possibility of lightning.
"[The paper] adds an original level of complexity by discussing size distributions," Yair said. "This is an important addition to the existing literature, with practical implications."
However, regarding the possibility of dust devils generating lightning, Yair says, "I am surprised that the authors discuss the probability of lightning inside the dust devil while neglecting the fact that highly charged dust may discharge at much lower electric fields … negating the possibility of lightning."
"In the end, predictions about lightning are very difficult because we don't fully understand how particles charge each other, not even really on Earth. … Ultimately, I think the question will be settled only [by] direct observations on Mars," Steven Desch, a professor of astrophysics at Arizona State University, who was also not involved in the study, told Space.com.
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Some progress may have happened on that front, too.
A recent study — shared by a group led by Baptiste Chide of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, France at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna in May — may have recorded the thunder from an electrical discharge. "Electrical discharges such as lightning are among the most energetic and remarkable phenomena in planetary atmospheres," write the authors in their paper. They studied sounds recorded by the SuperCam microphone onboard the NASA Perseverance rover on Mars. The recordings showed signs of coming from an electric discharge in a dust devil. This is the first such direct detection on Mars, setting the stage for newer discoveries by upcoming Mars missions such as the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin rover.
The study was published in the journal Physics of Plasmas in March.
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The largest Mars rock on Earth is up for auction in NYC — it could be yours for $4 million (or more)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NEW YORK CITY — Tucked away in a building on the corner of 72nd Street and York Avenue in Lenox Hill, an extraterrestrial marvel sits sturdily on a mirrored pedestal. It's the largest Mars rock on planet Earth — and it turns out its 54-pound (25-kilogram), ashy, terracotta structure isn't as priceless as you'd expect. This Mars rock is up for auction at Sotheby's in New York City this week, which is why it's currently on display in the Upper East Side. As of now, it's expected to sell for between $2 million and $4 million, but it could very well sell for far more. "At the end of the day, it's the bidders who tell us what things are worth, not me, not anyone else. The estimates are just there to give people an indication," Cassandra Hatton, the vice chairman of science and natural history at Sotheby's, told "Last summer, I sold the Stegosaurus 'Apex.' For the Stegosaurus, the estimate was [$4 million to $6 million], and it sold for $44.6 million." Hatton said she first heard about the Mars rock (formally called NWA 16788) about a year ago from the rock's seller, who learned about the specimen from a meteorite hunter in Africa. ("NWA" is short for "Northwest Africa," the region where the rock was found.) "When they first acquired it, they called me right away," she said. "I said, 'All right, we have got to get it tested; we need to have it published in the meteoritical bulletin." As such, the seller went through several formal steps to document and test the rock as well as have it published upon. That testing process was rather rigorous for a few reasons. First of all, unlike lunar meteorite candidates, possible Mars meteorites have no pristine samples to be compared with. During the Apollo years, astronauts physically brought hundreds of pounds of moon rocks back to Earth, and those samples still serve as the isotopic reference point for determining whether a rock is indeed a lunar meteorite or just a peculiar piece of our planet. Astronauts haven't visited the Red Planet yet, so of course we don't have any Mars rock reference points — and though there is still talk of a possible Mars Sample Return program to bring home samples that NASA's Perseverance rover has been collecting from the Martian surface over the last few years, the timeline on that is as unclear as can be. It may even be cancelled, if the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal is passed as-is by Congress. Alas, the testing team had to come up with a workaround, and they did so by considering a few clues we have about what a Martian meteorite should look like. How do you verify a Mars rock? Imagine something huge impacting another world — in this case, an asteroid striking Mars long ago. As a consequence of that impact, there'd have been a bunch of stuff that shot upward during the crash — chunks of the Martian surface, particles of dust, and who knows what else. If any of that debris managed to shoot far enough to exit the Martian atmosphere, it'd have been possible for those travelers to reach Earth, travel through our atmosphere and land somewhere on our world. Because of this journey, Martian atmospheric data is important to consider when verifying whether something is a Mars rock — and thanks to the twin Viking landers that NASA sent to Mars in the '70s, scientists indeed have that atmospheric data. "You'll find little gas pockets in a lot of Martian meteorites," Hatton said. "We've cut those pockets open and compared the gas in those pockets to the gas that we analyzed from the Martian atmosphere — and if they match up, then we know that rock came from Mars." The next step has to do with the general composition of a meteorite. Typically, Hatton explains, meteorites contain what's known as "Maskelynite" glass, which forms as the result of the big crash that forced the meteorite off the surface of a world. "That's layer one," she explained. "Is there Maskelynite glass in this rock? If it is, it's a meteorite, because we only find that in meteorites." "Then it's very easy," she said. "What's the [chemical makeup] of this rock? Compare it to a [Mars] rock that we have that we found in the desert — if they match, then boom. That's Martian." The market price of Mars Usually, pricing rare items that come into Sotheby's isn't too much of an ordeal. For instance, if you're trying to figure out the value of an antique necklace, you can look at the value of the stones and metals in the piece, think about the fame of the designer and look into how much other items from the same era cost. Similar thought processes help auction houses estimate the value of objects like photographs, autographs, technology and art. "If I have a Picasso, I just compare it to the other Picassos," Hatton said. "Is it bigger, blue or older? Is it depicting Marie-Thérèse [Walter, a French model and muse of the artist]?" The same can't be said for rare scientific items. "I really have to think about the context, the background, the history, the rarity, the significance, and then I put an estimate on it," Hatton said. In the case of the Mars rock soon to be up for auction, she said the cost estimate of $2 million to $4 million came from the fact that it's the biggest Red Planet meteorite we have. For context, other, smaller Martian meteorites have sold for between $20,000 and $80,000, Hatton said, but she emphasized that bigger isn't exactly always better in the auction world. Sometimes, the bigger you get, the more likely it is for the bidding price to go down. "How many people could fit a 100-foot long sauropod in their house? Nobody, not even every museum could fit a sauropod that's 100 feet long," she said, as an example. "So, then your market gets much smaller. That's also something to consider: Who could maintain this? Who could have it in their home?" But that reasoning doesn't really apply in this case, because NWA 16788 — though huge for a Mars meteorite — can still fit into an average-sized backpack. So, Hatton calls the maximum $4 million figure on the Mars rock at hand a conservative estimate. But beyond all the statistics, there's also an unusual aesthetic value to consider with NWA 16788. "It also looks just like the surface of the Red Planet," she said. "Most other Martian meteorites that we find are really small, thin slices, and when you first look at them, you would never guess that they're Martian." "This one has really amazing fusion crust on the outside," she added. "If you look closely at it, you could almost use it as a film set for a movie about Mars — put little teeny people on there, because you could see the grooves and the ripples and the mountains on it." But, well, does this belong in a museum? When asked why she believes a specimen so brilliant it can be called the "largest Mars rock on Earth" should be auctioned off to a collector rather than donated to a public museum or scientific institution — it's no secret that many would argue for the latter — Hatton looked back at the history of museums as a whole. "If we didn't have personal private collectors, we would not have museums," she said. "Many of my clients give the things to museums or loan them to museums." She also explained that having to pay for something may make one more likely to care for their property: "If it's precious to you monetarily, you take care of it. Having this value tied to the object helps ensure that it is taken care of." "There are some museums that don't have the funding and the staff to properly care for objects," she added. "So, a lot of times, the private collectors are saving these objects. They're making sure that they're taken care of." Hatton also pointed out that many major collectors loan their items to museums, and as part of that loan, offer extra money to have staff take care of the items or fund postdoctoral researchers to study them. Related Stories: — Ouch! Carlo Rambaldi's original screen-used 'E.T.' model might reach $1 million at Sotheby's auction — The secret of why Mars grew cold and dry may be locked away in its rocks — Space auction: Sally Ride memorabilia collection sells for $145,000 "Part of what I am hoping, and I think I am achieving with a lot of these sales, is raising the profile of all of these different types of space, sci-tech and natural history objects, and helping people understand how important they are." And though Hatton doesn't allow herself to place her own personal value estimate on the Mars rock — or anything she's auctioning off, for that matter — she highlighted that auctions aren't always purely about the items themselves. "I've had people cry after they've bought things at an auction. I've cried when I've had people contact me and say, 'will you sell this?' because there [are] your white whales — your grails that you hope maybe one day you'll get to see. I always root for people to get what they want, because it's not just about the object. They're kind of chasing a dream." Solve the daily Crossword
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Fuzzy, Large, And Very Old: Everything We Know About Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
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Trajectory Ongoing observations of 3I/ATLAS have enabled astronomers to chart its future path through the Solar System. It was discovered when it was at a distance of 4.5 astronomical units from the Sun (one astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun). That placed it inside the orbit of Jupiter. It's traveling at just under 60 kilometers (37 miles) per second, but that will speed up as the comet approaches the Sun. 1I/'Oumumua was traveling at 26 kilometers per second, and 2I/Borisov at 32. The closest 3I/ATLAS will come to the Sun is around 1.36 astronomical units, inside the orbit of Mars, on 29 October 2025. Its closest approach to Earth will be in December 2025, when it will come to a distance of 1.8 astronomical units. Origin The speed and trajectory of 3I/ATLAS suggest that it comes from the thick disk of the Milky Way, the puffy region around the thin disk wherein just 15 percent of the galaxy's stellar mass resides. This part of the galaxy is relatively sparse, and most of the stars in it are very old. Age The comet's origin provides clues about its age. Since it seems to hail from a region of mostly elderly objects, it stands to reason that 3I/ATLAS is likewise quite venerable. This is supported by a separate paper that has analyzed the speed and velocity of the comet to try to calculate its age. It is traveling much faster than the two previous interstellar objects, 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, suggesting that it is older than them too. Future observations will help narrow down the object's age, but this analysis places it somewhere between 3 and 11 billion years old. The Universe is 13.8 billion years old, and the Sun is 4.6 billion. 3I/ATLAS is unlikely to be at the upper end of the age range, but it's still probably older than the Solar System. "This is an object from a part of the galaxy we've never seen up close before," says astrophysicist Chris Lintott of the University of Oxford in the UK, co-author of one of the papers that has emerged. "We think there's a two-thirds chance this comet is older than the Solar System, and that it's been drifting through interstellar space ever since." Appearance We don't know much about the appearance of 3I/ATLAS yet, because it is very small and still quite far away, but initial observations suggest that it is quite large compared to 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov – about 10 kilometers across, compared to up to 400 meters long (around 1,300 feet) for 1I/'Oumuamua and 975 meters for 2I/Borisov. The spectrum of light reflected off the comet has been measured by a number of independent teams, all arriving at the same findings, suggesting that the object has either a complex mix of grain sizes, a different composition from those of Solar System comets, or a combo of both explanations. New images taken with the Gemini North telescope reveal the comet's puffy coma, a sort of 'atmosphere' of dust and gas that surrounds the comet. As it draws closer to the Sun, scientists expect its activity to pick up, resulting in cometary outgassing. "3I/ATLAS likely contains ices, especially below the surface, and those ices may start to activate as it nears the Sun," says astronomer Darryl Seligman of Michigan State University in the US. "But until we detect specific gas emissions, like H2O, CO or CO2, we can't say for sure what kinds of ice or how much there is." What next? Astronomers are going to continue keeping a close eye on 3I/ATLAS. Since it is so much larger than either of the previous two interstellar visitors, it presents a much better observation target, and its projected origin and age means it represents a rare opportunity to study parts of the galaxy in time and space that are usually out of reach. Its appearance has another implication, too. It suggests that interstellar visitors are relatively common to the Solar System – which is all the more reason to be excited about the forthcoming ESA/JAXA Comet Interceptor mission, designed to visit comets and study them up close, currently slated for a 2029 launch. Related News Sold: Largest Mars Rock Exceeds Auction Expectations One of 2025's Best Meteor Showers Is Upon Us: Here's How to Watch Meteorite Discovery Could Fill Billion Year Gap in Moon History Solve the daily Crossword
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This Week In Space podcast: Episode 169 — The Day Mars Died
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On Episode 169 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik are joined by Rob Manning, JPL's Chief Engineer Emeritus, to look back at the Mariner 4 Mars mission 60 years later. Six decades ago this week, the Mariner 4 probe sped past Mars, the first to succeed in this then-brash undertaking. The technology was unbelievably primitive, yet effective, sending back 22 low-resolution video frames of the Red Planet. On that day, the wee hours of July 15 at JPL in Pasadena, the Mars of the romantics died. What had long been viewed as a slightly colder, somewhat drier, near-twin of Earth ended up having just a trace of an atmosphere and looked more like the moon--bone dry and pummelled by craters. Download or subscribe to this show at: episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at Space news of the week 50 years after a historic handshake in space, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project's legacy still resonates 'Doghouse' days of summer — Boeing's Starliner won't fly again until 2026, and without astronauts aboard The largest Mars rock on Earth is up for auction in NYC — it could be yours for $4 million (or more) Biggest chunk of Mars on Earth! Take a tour at Sotheby's Mars Probes Five Ways Mariner 4 Changed Mars Exploration Hand-Colored Mars Photo from Mariner 4 John Casani, Former Manager of Multiple NASA Missions, Dies Model Falcon 9! TOP TELESCOPE PICK: Looking for a telescope to see planets and comets? We recommend the Celestron Astro Fi 102 as the top pick in our best beginner's telescope guide. Finally, did you know you can launch your own SpaceX rocket? Model rocket maker Estes' stunning scale model of a Falcon 9 rocket that you can pick up now. The launchable model is a detailed recreation of the Falcon 9 and retails for $149.99. You can save 10% by using the code IN-COLLECTSPACE at checkout, courtesy of our partners About This Week In Space This Week in Space covers the new space age. Every Friday we take a deep dive into a fascinating topic. What's happening with the new race to the moon and other planets? When will SpaceX really send people to Mars? Join Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from as they tackle those questions and more each week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe today on your favorite podcatcher. Solve the daily Crossword
