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technology Friday 16 december 2022
A13

Mars rover captures 1st sound of dust devil on red planet HEALTH

DOCTOR ON DUTY
By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer Oranjestad
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Hospital 7:00 pm / 10:00pm
(AP) — What's a dust dev- Tel. 527 4000
il sound like on Mars? A San Nicolas
NASA rover by chance had
its microphone on when a Imsan 24 hours
Tel.524 8833
whirling tower of red dust Women in Difficulties
passed directly overhead, PHARMACY ON DUTY
recording the racket.
It's about 10 seconds of not Oranjestad:
only rumbling gusts of up to Santa Cruz Tel. 585 8028
San Nicolas:
25 mph (40 kph), but the aloe Tel. 584 4606
pinging of hundreds of dust Women in Difficulties
particles against the rover OTHER
Perseverance. Scientists Dental Clinic 587 9850
released the first-of-its-kind Blood Bank Aruba 587 0002
audio Tuesday. Urgent Care 586 0448
The dust devil came and Walk-In Doctor’s Clinic
+297 588 0539
went over Perseverance Women in Difficulties
quickly last year, thus the EMERGENCY
short length of the audio,
said the University of Tou- Police 100
louse's Naomi Murdoch, Oranjestad 527 3140
lead author of the study Noord 527 3200
527 2900
Sta. Cruz
appearing in Nature Com- San Nicolas 584 5000
munications. At the same Police Tipline 11141
time, the navigation cam- Ambulancia 911
era on the parked rover Fire Dept. 115
captured images, while its Red Cross 582 2219
weather-monitoring instru- TAXI SERVICES
ment collected data. Taxi Tas 587 5900
"It was fully caught red- This photo made available by NASA was taken during the first drive of the Perseverance rover on Prof. Taxi 588 0035
Mars on March 4, 2021.
handed by Persy," said co- Associated Press Taxi D.T.S. 587 2300
author German Martinez Taxi Serv. Aruba 583 3232
of the Lunar and Planetary rover landed in February movement as never be- to return these samples to A1 Taxi Serv. 280 2828
Institute in Houston. 2021. It followed up with fore, Murdoch said. The Earth a decade from now. Women in Difficulties
Photographed for de- audio of the rover driving results""demonstrate just The helicopter Ingenuity TRAVEL INFO
cades at Mars but never around and its companion how valuable acoustic has logged 36 flights, the Aruba Airport 524 2424
heard until now, dust dev- helicopter, little Ingenuity, data can be in space ex- longest lasting almost three American Airlines 582 2700
ils are common at the red flying nearby, as well as the ploration." minutes.q Avianca 588 0059
planet. This one was in the crackle of the rover's rock- On the prowl for rocks that Jet Blue 588 2244
average range: at least zapping lasers, the main might contain signs of an- Surinam 582 7896
400 feet (118 meters) tall reason for the microphone. cient microbial life, Perse- Women in Difficulties
and 80 feet (25 meters) These recordings allow verance has collected 18 AID FOUNDATIONS
across, traveling at 16 feet scientists to study the Mar- samples so far at Jezero
(5 meters) per second. tian wind, atmospheric Crater, once the scene of FAVI- Visually Impaired
Tel. 582 5051
The microphone picked up turbulence and now dust a river delta. NASA plans
308 dust pings as the dust Alcoholics Anonymous
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devil whipped by, said Mur- Narcotics Anonymous
doch, who helped build it. Tel. 583 8989
Given that the rover's Su- Fundacion Contra Violencia
perCam microphone is Relacional Tel. 583 5400
turned on for less than Centre for Diabetes
three minutes every few Tel. 524 8888
days, Murdoch said it was Child Abuse Prevention
Tel. 582 4433
"definitely luck" that the
dust devil appeared when Quota Club Tel. 525 2672
Women in Difficulties
it did on Sept. 27, 2021. She General Info
estimates there was just a
1-in-200 chance of captur- Phone Directory Tel. 118
ing dust-devil audio.
Of the 84 minutes collect-
ed in its first year, there's
"only one dust devil record-
ing," she wrote in an email
from France.
This same microphone on
Perseverance's mast pro-
vided the first sounds from
Mars — namely the Mar-
tian wind — soon after the facebook.com/arubatoday/