Nasa captures first ‘dust devil’ on Mars after ‘hitting the jackpot’

Nasa has captured the sound of a “dust devil” whirlwind on Mars for the first time, after one swept over the top of the space agency’s Perseverance rover.

By chance, a whirlwind measuring 390ft high and 82ft wide passed directly above the microphone on the rover’s SuperCam.

Common across Mars, dust devils are short-lived whirlwinds loaded with dust that form when there is a major difference between ground and air temperatures.
They are a feature in the Jezero crater, where the Perseverance rover has been operational since February 2021 – but it had never before managed to record audio of one of them.

Nasa captures first ‘dust devil’ on Mars after ‘hitting the jackpot’