A Martian dust devil swept just above NASA's InSight Lander

The InSight lander seems to have been hit by one of Mars' famous dust devils, but do not worry, NASA's probe is not a problem. If something happened, the sudden gust of wind helped to remove annoying dust accumulated on the solar panels of the probe. The passing wind vortex has also produced a cool science.

The measurements collected by InSight on February 1, 2019 are compatible with a wind vortex, or devil of dust, passing directly over the InSight probe, according to a NASA press release. Unfortunately, the camera of InSight did not take a photo of the dusty and swirling column, but the two large solar panels of the LG experienced a sudden increase in power, about 0.7 % in one and 2.7% in the other, which, according to NASA, is exactly the sort of thing. you would expect that a thin layer of dust was suddenly removed from the surface of the solar panels.

NASA scientists have already seen this kind of thing. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers both experienced sudden power surges, some reaching 10%, followed by photographic evidence showing signs with less dust than before.

What is unique about this most recent event, however, is that InSight was able to gather other forms of evidence to support the case. And in fact, this marks the first time that a dust demon is directly detected by instruments embedded on a Mars probe, according to NASA; None of the space agency's aerials "included meteorological sensors that record so much data all the time," the space agency said in a press release.

The event was held early in the afternoon at Elysium Planitia, an area located on the Martian Equator. Like on Earth, dust devils are more prevalent at this time of day because of the interactions of warm surfaces with the colder air above. Elysium Planitia is also a particularly windy area of ​​the planet.

InSight's Auxiliary Payload Sensor Suite – a series of weather sensors – has captured data that is compatible with the passage of a dust devil. The wind changed direction by 180 degrees, for example, while the wind speed suddenly jumped to 72 km / h. The APSS also detected a sharp drop in atmospheric pressure. NASA said it was the biggest pressure drop ever recorded by a probe on Mars. The sudden drop of 9 pascals, or 13% of the local atmospheric pressure, suggested winds too fast for InSight's sensors to capture.

"The fastest absolute wind that we have measured directly to date with InSight was 28 km / h (63 km / h). The vortex that thus raised the dust from our solar panels was one of the strongest winds we've seen, "says a scientist from InSight Aymeric Spiga in the NASA press release. "Without a vortex, the winds usually range from 4 to 20 km / h (2 to 10 meters per second), depending on the time of day."

This event is not as exotic as it may seem. The dust devils are a regular fixture on Mars, carving the surface with distinctive patterns. It is estimated that millions of dust devils form on Mars every day.

InSight has already detected a group of nearby dust devils since it arrived on Mars in late November 2018. NASA suspects that it will not be the last time a wind vortex sweeps the probe – and that is a good thing. These swirls are not dangerous and, as no one on Mars can clean the dust of InSight's solar panels, these fortuitous events will have to suffice. NASA engineers would like to capture power gains comparable to those experienced by Opportunity and Spirit – so they are actively Hoping for more powerful vortices.

In addition, ongoing measurements of these events will enhance NASA's ability to design and refine future solar-powered missions and understand how wind affects the surface of Mars.