The first sound recording of the weather phenomenon on the Red Planet was produced by NASA's Perseverance rover as it was rattled by a dust devil.
That's cool on its own, but the recording in conjunction with other measurements taken at the time are more than just neat collectibles, and afford scientists a wealth of unprecedented insights into the Martian atmosphere.
A microphone on Mars would be an important instrument for studying the Martian atmosphere and dust devils were one of the phenomena that we hoped to observe one day.
There is only a small chance of detecting a dust devil with a single microphone in the middle of the day. Murdoch said something else.
Murdoch's team has been favored. Scientists say they were able to count every particle of dust that hit the rover.
They were able to calculate the dust devil's speed, which was 17 feet per second, as well as its wide and tall dimensions, which were at least 386 feet tall.
Thanks to Mars' rarefied atmosphere, which isn't even one percent as dense as Earth's, the vortex didn't pack much of a punch.
This is a huge deal. Murdoch said that scientists don't know how dust is lifted off the ground on Mars.
The findings here are just as illuminating as they are puzzling. Scientists observed a surprising amount of impacts while the rover was in its center, but the eye of the vortex should be calmer.
Murdoch told Space.com that the dust devil is unique to Mars. We don't know why the dust has accumulated in the center, but it may be because the dust devil is still forming.
Murdoch knows the value of microphones and acoustic data when it comes to exploration of planets.
A scientist wants to grow a forest inside a bubble on Mars.
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