NASA can hear the 'haunting' sound of dust devils tearing across Mars with its new $830 million lander

NASA-JPL Caltech

• NASA's newest Mars mission, called InSight, landed on the red planet November 26.
• Two instruments on the robot recently recorded the sounds of blowing winds and "felt" tornado-like dust devils tearing across the Martian surface.
• Scientists and engineers are scouting for a site to drop a device that will start listening for "Mars quakes."
• Mars quake recordings should reveal new information about the internal structure and ancient history of Mars.

Mars has air about 1% as thick as Earth's. That's so feeble, you might not hear someone talking to you from a few feet away.

Nevertheless, wind and tornado-like dust devils do blow across the Martian surface, and recording the sounds of these phenomena is essential to the success of NASA's newest mission at the red planet.

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