NASA finds new signs of lightning on Mars
Two NASA spacecraft—the MAVEN orbiter and the Perseverance rover—have now spotted very different signals indicating lightning on Mars.
An artist’s concept of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft in orbit around Mars.
Lightning has long escaped the confines of the Earth’s atmosphere – scientists have already discovered flashes of lightning in the skies of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Now they think they have found it on Mars too.
But actually seeing lightning on the Red Planet has proven challenging. Earth’s lightning is so powerful because of our world’s dense atmosphere and strong magnetic field. In comparison, Mars has only small fragments of a weak atmosphere and a small magnetic field. On the latter planet, scientists hypothesize, the light would not be dramatic arcs of lightning shooting from above, but more like flashing sparks from electrostatically charged dust swirling in the sky.
“We can’t describe it as lightning struck by Earth, but the principle is the same,” says space physicist Ondrej Santolik of the Czech Academy of Sciences. “It’s hard to predict what it looks like because no one has taken a picture of it yet.”
On supporting science journalism
If you enjoyed this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism Subscribing By purchasing a subscription, you are helping ensure a future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Santolik is one of the scientists behind the new research published Feb. 27 progress of science, who has announced Possible evidence of lightning on MarsAn event that occurred in June 2015 and whose signature was found in data collected by NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission. The paper comes just months after other researchers published an entirely different type Evidence of lightning on Mars Based on data collected by a microphone on NASA’s Perseverance rover.
“It feels like we’re getting closer to Martian lightning,” says Karen Aplin, a space physicist at the University of Bristol in England, who researches lightning but was not involved in any of the studies.
Aplin says that confirming the presence of electricity on Mars is not just a matter of scientific curiosity. Any form of electricity can be a threat to space technology, and electricity has also been shown to spark chemistry that may contribute to the development of life.
MAVEN is an orbiter mission, so it provides a long-range view of Mars’ lightning. In their work, Santolik and his colleagues looked for a phenomenon called whistlers. When lightning strikes, it heats and ionizes the surrounding air, which can act as a natural antenna to blast lightning-generated radio waves through and out of the planet’s atmosphere. The sound of these waves picked up at the receiver is like a whistle, hence it has been given this name.
All told, the team reviewed 108,418 snapshots from MAVEN in the search for Martian whistlers, which was a daunting task. “This needs to be done visually because it is very hard to do it by machine because of the noisy features in the data,” says Santolik. In the end, scientists found only one candidate. “It’s very surprising that we found it at all,” Santolik says. The researchers spent a year confirming that the observations were in line with their expectations from lightning.
It is unclear whether any similar observations will be available in the future as NASA has been out of contact with MAVEN for approximately three months.
Meanwhile a recent paper based on Perseverance data found dozens of examples of crackling sounds produced by small electrical discharges Near the rover during a dust storm. These observations are not contradictory but probably do not represent exactly the same phenomena. This is entirely plausible—there are also different types of electrical discharges in the Earth, plus the brightness of a storm is very different from that of lightning. st elmo’s fireAplin notes.
For Santolik, as charming as the comments are, they remain a weak consolation prize. He is a member of the team that built a specially designed lightning detector to fly on a Russian-built lander for the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover, a project led by the European Space Agency (ESA), once planned for launch in 2022. However, plans changed when this international partnership dissolved months before launch following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
ESA has struggled to build its own lander for the rover’s new 2028 launch date – and to speed up construction, it has opted not to install instruments on the platform. Santolik and his colleagues recently got their instrument back, but now they have no hope of ever seeing the Red Planet, much less seeing the world’s elusive lightning.
It’s time to stand up for science
If you enjoyed this article, I would like to ask for your support. scientific American He has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most important moment in that two-century history.
i have been one scientific American I’ve been a member since I was 12, and it’s helped shape the way I see the world. Science Always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does the same for you.
if you agree scientific AmericanYou help ensure that our coverage focuses on meaningful research and discovery; We have the resources to report on decisions that put laboratories across America at risk; And that we support both emerging and working scientists at a time when the value of science is too often recognised.
In return, you get the news you need, Captivating podcasts, great infographics, Don’t miss the newsletter, be sure to watch the video, Challenging games, and the best writing and reporting from the world of science. you can even Gift a membership to someone.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you will support us in that mission.
