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A dust devil looks a bit like a tornado, but is weaker and rarely lasts more than about a minute.

It is a twisting column of warmed air scooting across sun-heated ground, made visible by the dust that it lofts upwards. Although usually benign, occasionally dust devils can kill.

Dust devils have been known to appear on Mars since the 1970s. They have been observed both from the ground and from orbit.

The more dust in the Martian atmosphere, the warmer and more agitated it becomes, and this can escalate into a global dust storm.

When the dust settles, it can coat and disable the solar panels that are essential for many of the instruments we’ve landed on the planet.

There’s a lot we don’t know about how these devils function. But new research, published this week in Nature Communications, has recorded what dust devils sound like – giving fresh insights into how they operate.

But it also raises questions about how future astronauts would detect and interpret sounds on the red planet.

There has been a vast amount of erosion on Mars since the last rivers and lakes vanished, including at the landing sites of both Nasa’s current rovers Curiosity and Perseverance.

Although the erosive power of an individual dust devil is tiny, a billion years worth of dust devils could potentially have worn away kilometres of rock.

There are thus many reasons for wanting to better understand how dust devils function.

And we now know what a Martian dust devil sounds like thanks to the new study led by Naomi Murdoch of Toulouse University in France.

Many passing dust devils have been imaged by cameras on Mars landers and rovers, but Murdoch and her team report a dust devil that luckily passed exactly over the Perseverance rover on September 27, 2021, which was on the floor of Jezero crater.

The rover’s masthead camera, named SuperCam, includes a microphone, and this recorded the sound of the wind rising and falling as the dust devil passed over.

In detail, the wind noise rose when the leading wall of the vortex arrived, followed by a lull representing the calm air in the eye of the vortex, before a second episode of wind noise as the trailing wall of the vortex passed over.

This took less than ten seconds, and you can hear the sound recording here(https://jirafeau.isae-supaero.fr/f.php?h=2JWSkdJR&p=1) (turn your volume to max). Other sensors gave information too. They showed that the pressure fell to a minimum between the two bursts of wind noise – which to me is consistent with sucking rather than blowing – and also recorded impacts of individual dust grains onto the rover.

The dust devil was about 25 metres in diameter, at least 118 metres tall, and was tracking across the ground at about five metres per second.

The maximum wind speed in the rotating vortex was probably just under 11 metres per second, equating to a “fresh” to “strong” breeze on Earth.

Did it really sound like that? Listening to a recording purporting to be the sound of Martian wind is all very well, but is this really what we would hear if we were there ourselves? The first thing to note is that this does genuinely originate as “real sound”, unlike other data such as images or radio signals turned into sound (a process known as sonification), such as the so-called sound of two black holes colliding or radio noise from from Venus’s atmosphere.

The dust devil audio file contains actual sound waves picked up by a microphone on Mars.

There the atmosphere is much thinner than on Earth (Martian surface pressure is less than a hundredth of ours), so the high frequency component of sound hardly carries (scientists say it’s “attenuated”).

The result is that the wind sounds much lower in pitch than a similar wind on Earth.

The only other planetary body from which we have genuine sound recordings is Venus, where in 1982 two Soviet “Venera” landers recorded wind and lander operation noises.

However, if you were on Mars you could never hear the wind directly with your own ears.

If you were foolish enough to expose your ears to Mars’s atmosphere, the low external pressure would cause your eardrums to burst, and you would be instantly deaf as well as having no air to breathe.

If you were to go outside in a pressurised spacesuit (a much more sensible idea), what you would hear would depend on how well the sound waves were transmitted through the solid shell of your helmet, and then on how these were turned back into sound waves in the air inside your helmet.

In other words, you would hear a distorted version of what an external microphone would pick up. Imagine walking round on Earth with your head inside a goldfish bowl and you’ll get part of the idea.

If future human explorers on Mars want to hear what’s going on in the external environment, I suspect they will rely on a suit-mounted microphone feeding to wireless ear buds, although I can’t find any evidence that that this has yet been factored into Mars suit design.

This all boils down to a recording from external microphone being the best way to represent sounds on Mars, or indeed any other planet that has an atmosphere.

If you want to hear some more sounds from Mars, NASA has a collection of audio recordings you can listen to.


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NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Sends First Space Images Before Full Sky Survey

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NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Sends First Space Images Before Full Sky Survey

NASA’s SPHEREx mission has sent back its first images from space. This marks an important step before it begins the full survey of the sky. The space telescope, which was launched on March 11, 2025, is designed to scan millions of galaxies and collect data in infrared light. On March 27, its detectors captured uncalibrated images that show thousands of light sources, including distant stars and galaxies. The images, processed with added colours for infrared wavelengths, confirm that SPHEREx is operating as expected. Once fully operational, the telescope will take 600 exposures daily and map the entire sky four times during its two-year mission.

Recorded Images Reveals Interesting Details

According to NASA’s SPHEREx mission, the observatory’s six detectors recorded images of the same area of the sky, providing a wide field of view. The top three images represent one portion of the sky, while the bottom three cover the same section. As per the report, the SPHEREx catpured each image with around 100,000 light sources. As per multiple reports, scientists can now learn more about what celestial objects and its distance from Earth with the help of infrared wavelengths. The data from SPHEREx will also help researchers to explore the origins of water in the Milky Way. Moreover, it might also help the scientists to find more clues about the universe’s earliest moments.

Olivier Doré, SPHEREx project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech, told NASA that the telescope is functioning as intended. The infrared light detected by SPHEREx is invisible to human eyes, but colour mapping enables researchers to visualise and analyse it. The observatory’s unique design includes 17 infrared wavelength bands for each detector, creating a total of 102 hues in every six-image capture.

How the Telescope Works

Unlike Hubble or the James Webb Space Telescope, which focuses on specific areas of space, SPHEREx is built for large-scale surveys. It uses spectroscopy to break down light and identify chemical compositions and distances of celestial bodies. Light entering the telescope is divided into two paths, each leading to three detectors. Specialised filters process the incoming wavelengths, allowing for detailed observations of millions of cosmic sources.

Beth Fabinsky, deputy project manager at JPL, said in NASA’s official statement that the successful image capture represents a major milestone. The telescope has also reached its target operating temperature of minus 350 degrees Fahrenheit, crucial for detecting faint infrared signals. Since focusing cannot be adjusted after launch, mission engineers verified the accuracy of the telescope’s optics before sending it into space.

Jamie Bock, principal investigator at JPL and Caltech, confirmed in NASA’s report that the telescope is performing as expected. Engineers will continue testing before the observatory begins routine operations in late April.

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Iceland’s Grindavík town evacuated as volcanic fissure erupts with lava!

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Iceland’s Grindavík town evacuated as volcanic fissure erupts with lava!

A volcanic fissure has emerged near Grindavík on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula after a series of strong earthquakes. Lava has breached the town’s defence barriers. The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) has warned that the fissure may continue to expand. The eruption began along the Sundhnúkur crater row early in the morning. By 9:45 a.m. local time, a fissure stretching nearly 1,200 metres had opened north of Grindavík. The crack is moving southward. Officials have raised the hazard level to the highest risk category.

Evacuations and Road Closures

According to the IMO, a second fissure has appeared inside Grindavík’s protective barriers. Authorities have evacuated the town along with the Blue Lagoon spa. Roads in and out of the area have been shut. Some residents have refused to leave. Local media outlet Visir has reported that emergency services remain on high alert.

Impact of Volcanic Gas

Weather forecasts indicate that volcanic gas will be carried northeastward towards Reykjavík. The capital is located about 40 kilometres away. The IMO has stated that by tomorrow morning, changing wind patterns may direct the gas southwest and eastward. Residents have been told to remain indoors as much as possible while closely monitoring air quality updates. Reykjanes Peninsula has experienced about 11 eruptions since 2021. Eight have occurred along the Sundhnúkur crater row since last year. Scientists continue to monitor the situation closely. Authorities have urged people to avoid the affected region.

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JWST Captures Unseen Details of Exoplanets in HR 8799 and 51 Eridani Systems

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JWST Captures Unseen Details of Exoplanets in HR 8799 and 51 Eridani Systems

Astronomers have released new images of planets within the HR 8799 and 51 Eridani star systems. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was used in a way that was different from standard procedures to achieve these results. Capturing direct images of exoplanets is challenging due to the brightness of host stars, which often obscures planetary details. To allow more light through, researchers adjusted JWST’s coronagraphs. This helps in enhancing the visibility of these distant worlds. This adjustment provided clearer insights into planetary atmospheres and their compositions.

Unconventional Use of JWST’s Coronagraphs

According to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, lead author William Balmer, a Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins University, explained to Space.com that a thinner part of the coronagraph mask was used. This allowed more starlight to diffract, reducing the risk of completely obscuring planets. Coronagraphs typically block starlight to reveal faint celestial bodies, but this modification provided a balance between removing excessive glare and preserving planetary details.

Key Discoveries and Observations

The JWST’s mid-infrared imaging captured HR 8799 at 4.6 microns. It is a wavelength that is mainly blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. Balmer stated that previous ground-based attempts had failed, demonstrating JWST’s stability in detecting exoplanets. Observations at 4.3 microns were also conducted. This revealed the presence of carbon dioxide. It is a very important step in determining the planetary formation processes. The detected carbon dioxide levels suggested that these planets likely formed through core accretion, gathering heavy elements over time.

Future Research and Expanding Studies

There are many research planned to study the four additional planetary systems. Balmer’s team has been allocated more JWST observation time to confirm whether similar gas giants formed through core accretion. This could offer more insights into the stability of planetary systems and potential habitability of smaller, unseen planets.

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