NASA Rover Makes a Shocking Discovery: Lightning on Mars (nytimes.com)
- Reference: 0180217361
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/11/26/1728223/nasa-rover-makes-a-shocking-discovery-lightning-on-mars
- Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/science/mars-lightning-nasa.html
> It is shocking but not surprising. Lightning [1]crackles on Mars , scientists reported on Wednesday. What they observed, however, were not jagged, high-voltage bolts like those on Earth, arcing thousands of feet from cloud to ground. Rather, the phenomenon was more like the shock you feel when you scuff your feet on the carpet on a cold winter morning and then touch a metal doorknob.
>
> "This is like mini-lightning on Mars," Baptiste Chide, a scientist at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetary Science in Toulouse, France, said of the centimeter-scale electrical discharges. Dr. Chide and his colleagues reported the findings in [2]a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The electrical sparks, although not as dramatically violent as on Earth, could play an important role in chemical reactions in the Martian atmosphere.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/science/mars-lightning-nasa.html
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09736-y
Headline gets a pass (Score:3)
Normally I am annoyed by the clickbait use of the word "shocking" in a headline, but in this case I guess it's appropriate...
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps "slightly startling" instead?
mini? (Score:2)
more like Micro lighting.
Why surprising? (Score:2)
Why would this be surprising? Mars has huge dust storms and is very dry. The perfect recipe for static electricity. What am I missing?
Re: (Score:3)
> Why would this be surprising? Mars has huge dust storms and is very dry. The perfect recipe for static electricity. What am I missing?
That they have decided their direct observations support that theory. That science needs confirming evidence for a theory on its way to being fully accepted. All that has happened is that they have decided that some progress has occurred on that path.
Re: (Score:1)
The general dearth of atmosphere, is the main thing that would be holding Mars back from having any really substantial weather phenomena, including lightning like we see on Earth. But apparently there is just about enough atmosphere to support... this version of it.
Mars was destroyed in a nuclear war? (Score:1)
I have no idea, but its an interesting theory I read recently.
[1]https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014JCos...2412229B/abstract [harvard.edu]
[1] https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014JCos...2412229B/abstract
Re: (Score:2)
First post aside, isn't this just static electricity?
Re: (Score:2)
> First post aside, isn't this just static electricity?
Won't really know for sure until someone shuffles across Mars in socks and touches the rover. :-)
I called it! (Score:2)
[1]https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/... [harvard.edu]
[1] https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000JBIS...53..117L/abstract