Scientists have released sounds from another world.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has deployed its SuperCam instrument on Mars for the first time.
The high-intensity light probe can identify rocks at a distance.
It’s a technique that was also employed by Nasa’s previous rover, Curiosity.
But Perseverance has a microphone that allows us to actually hear the laser at work.
The sound of the laser hitting rocks reveals knowledge such as the hardness of the targets being investigated.
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“If we tap on a surface that is hard, we will not hear the same sound as when we fire on a surface that is soft,” explained Naomi Murdoch, from the National Higher French Institute of Aeronautics and Space, in Toulouse.
“Take for example chalk and marble.
"These two materials have an identical chemical composition (calcium carbonate), but very different physical properties.”
In a media briefing Dr Murdoch played three different sounds recorded by the SuperCam microphone.
One was of the general sound of Mars, the second was of some wind gusts, and the third was the staccato pops from the laser in action.
Perseverance landed in Mars’ Jezero Crater on February 18 to search for evidence of past life.
The deep bowl is regarded as an excellent location for such a quest because it almost certainly held a lake billions of years ago; and where there’s been water, perhaps there’s been life, too.
Perseverance has spent most of its first three weeks on Mars going through post-landing checks.
It has, though, started driving in a north-easterly direction.
An immediate goal is a helicopter experiment.
The rover brought a small chopper with it from Earth.
The vehicle is looking for a suitable stretch of terrain where the four and a half pound device, called Ingenuity, can be put safely on the ground.
