Lightning may flash through the skies of Mars. But don’t expect to see big, jagged streaks like those produced by storms on Earth. Instead, they may be tiny sparks – like fireflies twinkling through a summer evening.

On Earth, lightning is generated by the motions of bits of ice inside clouds. As the particles move past each other, they build up an electric charge. They dis-charge as lightning.

The clouds on Mars are high and thin, so there’s no way for them to make big lightning bolts. But the dust grains that swirl through the Martian atmosphere might generate their own discharges. And two recent studies found evidence of them.

In the first, researchers combed through recordings made by a microphone on the Perseverance rover. They found 55 instances of small “crackling” sounds near the rover. Almost all of them happened during dust storms, or when small dust devils passed the rover.

The scientists decided the most likely explanation for the crackles was tiny discharges – “lightning” bolts about a centimeter long.

In the second study, a team looked at observations made by the MAVEN orbiter. The scientists looked for radio waves produced by lightning, which are different from other types of radio from the planet. They found a single example – a possible flicker in Martian skies.

Even if lightning is small and rare, it could interfere with future Mars landers – perhaps endangering instruments and people on the Red Planet.

Script by Damond Benningfield