“Peshtkar” probe managed to record the first audio file of a tornado on the planet Mars.
The result of examining the sound recorded from the surface of Mars has been published in the journal “Nature Communications”. Mars rover “Pashtkar” is the first probe equipped with a microphone that has been sent to this planet. Roger Vines, Professor of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, believes that sounds will help humans to know about Mars more than other available tools.
The “persistent” probe microphone does not permanently record the sound of the surrounding environment. This microphone records the sound of the surrounding environment for three minutes every few days. Roger Vines believes that it is a kind of “luck” that the “persistent” microphone managed to record the sound of the tornado in such conditions.
Recordings of tornadoes on the surface of Mars, combined with other data such as barometric pressure and time-lapse photography, will help scientists gain a better understanding of the Martian climate and atmosphere.
“We can see the air pressure drop, the sound of the wind, then silence for a moment as the center of the tornado passes, and then the sound of the wind again and the air pressure increases,” says Rogers Wiens.
According to him, all these events happen in just a few seconds at the activity site of “Persistence” on the planet Mars. The wind speed recorded by the “Pashtkar” microphone is about 40 kilometers per hour. However, due to the lower air pressure on the surface of this planet, the pressure of the Martian winds is lower than the pressure of the Earth’s winds at the same speed.
The tornado recorded by “Pashtkar” is not very strong, but it has enough power to send dust into the air.
Scientists’ study shows that astronauts should not worry about strong winds for a possible trip to Mars.
