The Insight mission recorded the largest earthquake to date on Mars in early May. And even better: you can listen to it.
” It’s a sound from the depths of Mars: the data of the largest Martian earthquake has been sounded for your earss”, writing the official account of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) on Twitter, this May 14, 2022. In accompaniment: an audio recording of a handful of seconds, which allows you to hear the biggest earthquake ever recorded on Mars, since the human sent his tools to the red planet.
You can listen to it below:
A few days earlier, the official account of the Insight mission (Internal exploration by seismic soundings, geodesy and heat fluxes) also raved: “ After more than three years of listening to soft hums on Mars, I just felt by far the biggest earthquake on Mars: it seems to be of magnitude 5. »
A magnitude 5 earthquake does not seem huge compared to what we know on Earth. But on Mars, it’s near the upper limit of what scientists hoped to see on the InSight mission “says NASA.
A “monstrous earthquake” recorded on Mars
NASA, which has piloted the Insight mission since 2018, didn’t skimp on hyperbole: the title of its online press release reads “ Insight records monstrous earthquake on Mars”. This event, which took place on May 4, adds to the 1,313 other Martian ground tremors already recorded.
This isn’t the first time the SEIS seismometer on the Insight mission has recorded the sound of an earthquake on Mars, but this is the most powerful. In 2019, it made it possible to listen to the sound of another earthquake, smaller, and slightly less audible. In 2021, SEIS also recorded a magnitude 4.1 earthquake, much smaller than this one.
The InSight mission should continue to provide further data on the interior of Mars. Scientists hope to use it to better understand the formation of rocky stars, such as the Earth or the Moon.