NASA's Mars InSight lander detected a quake on the red planet, believes NASA
Seismic signals picked up in the surface of Mars at the beginning of April
For the first time, NASA's robotic probe InSight has picked up what scientists believe to be a quake on Mars.
The data came on 6th April in the form of a faint seismic signal, about five months after the lander touched down on the Martian surface. It was InSight's 128th sol (Martian day) on the Red Planet.
According to NASA, the seismic signal was detected by the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, which is capable of measuring a seismic wave just one-half the radius of a hydrogen atom. The instrument is highly sensitive and needs protection from the wind. That's why it always remains covered by a dome-shaped shield that enables it to focus only on the interior of the planet.
It's so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active
NASA scientists are still studying the SEIS data to determine the exact cause of the signal, but the high frequency of the signal and its broad band suggests that it likely came from the Mars' interior and was not caused by wind shaking the instrument.
So far, InSight has detected three other signals of seismic activity on Mars - on 14th March, 10th April, and 11th April. All these signals were recorded by SEIS' Very Broad Band sensors, but they were weaker than the signal recorded on 6th April.
The Martian surface is extremely quiet compared with the Earth's, which continuously experiences seismic noise produced by weather processes, oceans, and tremors occurring along fault lines.
Mars, on the other hand, lacks tectonic plates, and its seismic activity is mainly driven by a process that involves slow cooling and contracting in the interior. This process eventually leads to building up of stress, which over time becomes strong enough to rupture the crust.
The Mars InSight team hopes to use the probe's Marsquake data to eventually figure out what Mars is made of. As the waves generated from a quake travel across the rocks within the planet, the signals can provide significant details about the interior of Mars.
"It's so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active," said Philippe Lognonné, the principal investigator for SEIS.
"We're looking forward to sharing detailed results once we've had a chance to analyse them," he added.
Delta is a new market intelligence service from Computing to help CIOs and other IT decision makers make smarter purchasing decisions - decisions informed by the knowledge and experience of other CIOs and IT decision makers.
Delta is free from vendor sponsorship or influence of any kind, and is guided by a steering committee of well-known CIOs, such as Charles Ewen, Christina Scott, Steve Capper and Laura Meyer.
Ten crucial technology areas are already covered at launch, with more data appearing and more areas being covered every week. Sign-up here for your free trial of the Computing Delta website.
Further reading
More on Communications
Getting it right with influencer marketing and celebrity endorsements
Influencers can help brands reach audiences that might normally be out of their reach, but there are rules that need to be followed, warns Goodman Derrick partner Paul Herbert
Working from home, keeping connected: 17 video conferencing and collaboration tools to consider
Whether you're a global corporation or a small business, ensuring remote working colleages can keep in touch is suddenly more important than ever. We look at 17 video-enabled collaboration tools that could help bridge the communications gap.
BT: Working from home? We can handle it
BT responds to media claims that the UK’s networks can’t handle the strain of millions of people suddenly working from home
New laws will make it mandatory for developers to hook-up new homes to fibre broadband
New laws will force developers to ensure that all new homes are hooked-up to 1Gbps broadband
Most read
