New research has shown that friction between dust particles on Mars probably produces an electric discharge like lightning. Sparks, however, pose a relative threat to Earth’s powerful bolts and pose no threat to rovers or future human explorers. Mars has so much fine dust; it can often grip the entire planet, impermeably hindering our best visions. Despite the lack of rain clouds, scientists have been concerned since the day of the first landers that whether these particles could move electronically when they collided with each other, electric fields could produce enough power to create strong discharges. No landers or rover seems to have damaged in such a way that the danger is not too great, there are more explanations for lost missions.
Professor Joseph Dufek, a volcanologist at the University of Oregon, has created a model of such a storm using materials from the nearest Earth. Icarus Dufek and co-authors report that discharge may occur but are too weak to create too much threat. Humans and our robotic envoys will be protected by the limited capacity of the Martian atmosphere to store charges. “We were interested in pursuing this task because of the number of new missions to Mars and the potential to hamper observations,” Dufek said in a statement. A typical Martian electric discharge will have an electric field of about 20,000 volts per meter, Dufek reports. As impressive as it is, impressive, 3 million volts per meter on Earth is uncommon, we often create spectacular phenomena with extraordinary consequences.
Co-author Joshua Mendez-Harper said, “Experiments by us and others before us have shown that it is easier for Mars to find sparks when you drive sand and dust,” It can be hard to find.” Earlier experiments carried out to verify the possibility of lightning on Mars, but its flaws known. The dust particles not only used non-Martian, but also made contact with the walls of the container in which they were tested. “The interaction of two separate substances as two chemicals can create more intense charging than the interaction between two chemically identical elements,” the paper notes.
Naturally, Dufek and Méndez Harper did not acquire any Martian dust, but they have mingled with what is there, and the basaltic ash has pulverized from the eruption of Mexico’s 2,000-year-old volcanic eruption. They equip it with 8 millibars of carbon dioxide. -There the Martian represents the environment; the wide particles inside the glass tube never touch the walls. The result is less than terrestrial electricity and closer to the small-sized discharge that occurs in volcanic vents on Earth, the paper concludes. All of these otherwise scientifically reliable books/films The Martian eventually suggest major imperfections. Dust storms on Mars can be terrifying for visibility but are unlikely to create anything intense enough to force them to remove immediately.
