Detection of triboelectric discharges during dust events on Mars

[domofutu]

Research paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09736-y

[wongarsu]

This discovery is thanks to Perseverance having microphones. It's crazy to think about that 2021 was the first time we had working microphones on Mars.

The first Mars Microphone was originally supposed to land in 1999 on the Polar Lander, but that one didn't survive the landing. The next was in 2008 on Phoenix 's Mars Descent Imager, but in integration testing a bug was discovered that made the Descent Imager risky to use, so that was never activated. And on all the rovers since then a microphone wasn't deemed important enough compared to all the other possible payloads

[foobarbecue]

> The first Mars Microphone was originally supposed to land in 1999 on the Polar Lander, but that one didn't survive the landing.

This could be misread to mean that Mars Polar Lander landed but the microphones didn't survive. Mars Polar Lander crashed and was presumed completely destroyed on impact. Last I heard, we still haven't found the crash site in orbital imagery.

[zokier]

> The next was in 2008 on Phoenix 's Mars Descent Imager, but in integration testing a bug was discovered that made the Descent Imager risky to use, so that was never activated. And on all the rovers since then a microphone wasn't deemed important enough compared to all the other possible payloads

There was exactly one Mars rover, Curiosity, between 2008 and Percy.

[chistev]

How does this work in practice. If a microphone is up there, it's constantly listening for things right?

So how do humans here on Earth go over it to know if a sound was picked up knowing there's hours of recording?

Is it that the whole system is programmed to show a spike when sound is captured?

[PunchyHamster]

it's wild given how small and light basic microphone is. They even (probably not in 1999 tho) come with their own adc and serial interface now.

Then again I guess there isn't any obvious need for it aside from PR points for "listening to mars"

[throwawayffffas]

What blows my mind is that we had not before. I would think that with all that dust flying around it's got to be pretty common. And we have satellites orbiting Mars for decades and apparently we didn't see any.

[irjustin]

This lightning is only a few centimeters long: https://www.kpbs.org/news/science-technology/2025/11/26/at-l...

[larodi]

...perhaps resolution and FPS provided by these orbital cameras are not exactly what one would expect.

[shevy-java]

Thor is there, swinging his ...

hammer.

Edit: Wait a moment ... that's not actually lightning?

"By listening to the sounds of Mars, the team identified interference and acoustic signatures in the recordings that are characteristic of lightning."

So they could only listen to sound? I mean, aren't pictures more convincing? We need more cameras on Mars.

[irjustin]

This isn't lightning like we think on earth. It's only a few centimeters long which is why it's never been detected before except by microphone[0].

[0] https://www.kpbs.org/news/science-technology/2025/11/26/at-l...

[yesco]

Wouldn't it be static electricity in that case and not lightning? Not sure if this is just a technical definition thing I'm missing or if lightning just makes a cooler sounding headline.

[keepamovin]

How do we know it's not alien lightsaber battles tho?

[chistev]

What are the implications for life?

[kadoban]

Vaguely positive for abiogenesis, but not in a way that really moves the needle at all.

[stronglikedan]

same as before

[Razengan]

Does that mean Mars' ground is electrically charged (positively or negatively) or what?

[saagarjha]

I assume it's earthe–wait.

[amelius]

Strange that the article doesn't say what this means for the formation of life.

[tsimionescu]

Does it mean anything? There are some theories that lightning could be involved in abiogenesis on Earth, but it's not in any way a clear thing.

[zombot]

Dusty tornadoes and lightning? I'm beginning to like Mars.

[dgb23]

Galvanizing!

[keepamovin]

I see waht you did there. But your comment is so subtle, it's boiling the frog of HN's humor reflex

[stavros]

Are you saying you reject the use of "we" for any group that doesn't include you?

[wongarsu]

I'd assume most French would be happy with "France detected Lightning on Mars"

I read the title as equivalent to "Humanity detected Lightning on Mars", which I'm also perfectly happy with

[baiwl]

Right? It wasn’t me. So was it Gizmodo, the website where this was posted?

[thatjoeoverthr]

I assume you're downvoted for pedantry (understandable) but it is a real pattern. Whenever it's a space topic it's always "we" or "Japan" or "America". Nobody is so vague on other topics. I suspect it's a throwback to the Cold War space race when the major players did flights in a geopolitical context. If the institute's name is very long, like here, maybe "Scientists detected ..." or "Researchers ..."