Nov. 26 (UPI) -- NASA's Perseverance rover has recorded the first evidence of electrical activity on Mars that a scientist described as "mini lightning."
A scientific team analyzed 28 hours of audio and video recordings made by the rover that landed on Mars in February 2021, and the team determined that some recordings are evidence of electrical activity on Mars, according to Gizmodo.
The electrical activity is not like the lightning bolts that occur during adverse weather on Earth and instead is more akin to static electricity that is thought to be caused when dust devils pass across Mars' surface, NPR reported.
"This is more like mini-lightning on Mars," scientist Baptiste Chide of the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetary Science in Toulouse, France, said, as reported by The New York Times.
The lightning is so weak that it won't kill someone, but it could be an important component of chemical reactions in Mars' atmosphere, Chide and his team of scientists said in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
