First Seisms Detected on Mars

NASA — InSight Mission patch.

April 23, 2019

A Martian tremor has been recorded on the red planet. This should allow, in the long run, to learn more about its history.

 First Likely Marsquake Heard by NASA’s InSight

Video above: This video and audio illustrates a seismic event detected by NASA’s Mars InSight rover on April 6, 2019, the 128th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Three distinct kinds of sounds can be heard, all of them detected as ground vibrations by the spacecraft’s seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS): noise from Martian wind, the seismic event itself, and the spacecraft’s robotic arm as it moves to take pictures. Video Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES/IPGP/Imperial College London.

«A weak but distinct seismic signal»: the French seismometer SEIS deployed on Mars as part of the US mission InSight captured, April 6, its first Martian earthquake, said Tuesday the French space agency CNES.

«It’s great to finally have the sign that there is still seismic activity on Mars,» enthuses in a statement Philippe Lognonné, researcher of the Institute of Physics of the Globe of Paris. «We waited for our first Martian earthquake for months,» adds the father of the precious instrument.

Image above: NASA’s InSight Lander and its Wind and Thermal Shield of SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) on April 18 (Sol 135). Image Credits: NASA / JPL.

Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) seismometer, whose technical and scientific responsibility is French, was deposited on 19 December 2018 on Martian soil thanks to an automatic arm of the InSight lander arrived on the red planet on 26 November.

His goal ? Listen to beat the heart of Mars and, earthquake after earthquake, learn more about the history of its formation that occurred billions of years ago.

Three other signals

If, according to Bruce Banerdt, scientific leader of the mission within NASA, the tremor, which occurred on the 128th Martian day of the mission, «marks the official birth of a new discipline: Martian seismology», it turns out to be too weak to provide useful data on the inside of Mars.

And, according to scientists, it also remains to be confirmed that the recorded tremor has its origin in the interior of the planet and is not due to the effect of wind or other sources of parasitic noise.

Mars InSight Mission logo. Animation Credits: NASA / JPL

Three other signals, but much weaker than that of April 6, have been detected in the last two months.

Related article:

InSight’s Seismometer Now Has a Cozy Shelter on Mars
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/02/insights-seismometer-now-has-cozy.html

Related links:

CNES Press Release (In French): https://insight.cnes.fr/fr/insight-de-battre-le-coeur-de-mars-commence

Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS): https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/instruments/seis/

InSight Mars Lander: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/insight/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: AFP / CNES / NASA / JPL / Orbiter.ch Aerospace / Roland Berga.

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