Is there lightning on Mars? New evidence suggests it's there, just hard to see

"Earth's lightning is so striking because of our world's thick atmosphere and strong magnetic field. In comparison, Mars has only a tenuous atmosphere and small patches of a puny magnetic field. On the latter planet, scientists have hypothesized, lighting would not be dramatic arcs of electricity erupting overhead but more like glowing sparks set off by electrostatically charged dust swirling through the skies."

"We cannot describe it as a lightning bolt from the Earth, but the principle is similar, says Ondrej Santolik, a space physicist at the Czech Academy of Sciences. It's kind of difficult to guess what it looks like because nobody has taken a picture yet."

"Santolik is one of scientists behind new research, published on February 27 in Science Advances, that has announced possible evidence of a lightning strike on Mars, an event that occurred in June 2015 and whose signature was detected in data gathered by NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission."

Lightning exists throughout the solar system, having been observed on Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. Mars presents unique challenges for lightning detection due to its tenuous atmosphere and minimal magnetic field compared to Earth. Rather than dramatic electrical arcs, Martian lightning would manifest as glowing sparks from electrostatically charged dust particles. Recent research published in Science Advances presents possible evidence of a lightning strike on Mars detected by NASA's MAVEN mission from June 2015. Additional evidence emerged from audio data collected by the Perseverance rover's microphone. These independent discoveries suggest scientists are progressively confirming the existence of lightning on the Red Planet.

Read at www.scientificamerican.com