MARS: NASA’s InSight Lander Confirms Quakes on Mars, And Other Discoveries

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Mars is extremely cold and frigid as it is far from the sun than our earth is. But under this dusty surface, Mars is humming. InSight lander which was launched by NASA which detected the humming sound coming from below the surface of Mars. This sound is just one of the mysteries unfolded by InSight lander. This work and the discoveries were published in Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications, which also gave information about the activities going above and below the surface of Mars.

InSight landed on Mars in November 2018, following a distressing descent to a featureless and flat topography near Mars’s central latitude. From then one, the lander is collecting data through its extremely sensitive seismometer and an amalgamation of other instruments. This data is helping the scientists to reveal the mysteries of the Martian planet.

The principal investigator of the InSight mission was extremely pleased with the findings. He said, “It’s just such a relief to finally be able to stand up and shout, look at all this great stuff we’re seeing.”

The latest discoveries include one of first active fault zone on Mars. It also gives information about the pulses of modern magnetic fields and the hints to the planet’s magnetic past. This information helps find out how a rocky planet evolves.

“You can’t make a model just from Earth, you need more data points. It’s just super exciting that we see some of these things, and that we are trying to understand Mars,” says Suzanne Smrekar, the deputy principal investigator of the InSight mission.

The first 10 months of collecting data and information, InSight’s seismograph picked up 174 events. Some of the quakes give us approval that mars have an active below the surface geology.

“One thing that is surprising is the large numbers of small events and the lack so far of events larger than magnitude 4,” Dr Smrekar said.

The magnitude of between 3-4 is in only 24 quakes. This also proves that Mars on an average is almost as active as Earth in regions far from plate boundaries, like Australia.