Probe Detects ‘Marsquake’ on Red Planet for Very First Time
The first ever seismic tremor was registered on Mars, proving that the so-far hypothetical “marsquakes” are a real deal, and the Red Planet is far from being dead – in a geological sense at least.
The quake was detected by the French made SEIS module, that was placed on the planet back in December 2018 by NASA’s InSight lander probe. Audio of the Mars tremor, accompanied with footage of the cupola-like probe has been released by French space agency CNES.
C’est une première mondiale : le sismomètre 🇫🇷 SEIS a détecté un tremblement martien ! Chaussez vos casques et déroulez 🎧
c/ @NASAJPL @NASAInSight @InSight_IPGP @CNRS pic.twitter.com/tL99pzTDN3— CNES (@CNES) April 23, 2019
The quake is the very first tremor, recorded on Mars, that came from the inside of the planet and was not caused by wind, impact of some stray space rock, or anything else. While humankind has tried to explore the depths of Mars with a seismometer since the 1970s, the SEIS module is the first one to succeed.
Cet événement est le premier tremblement martien dont l’origine proviendrait de l’intérieur de la planète – par opposition à un mouvement causé par le vent. Pour vous donner un aperçu, voici quelques sons reconstitués à partir des données collectées par #SEIS sur #Mars 👇 pic.twitter.com/IiiuyvxmSu
— CNES (@CNES) April 23, 2019
The discovery is likely to debunk theories that the elusive ‘marsquakes’ are extremely rare and occur as rarely as once in a million years or more. Or else the InSight mission got extremely lucky and we won’t hear anything again from the Red Planet for quite some time.
RT
