Study of Marsquakes

NASA’s InSight ‘Hears’ Peculiar Sounds on Mars

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Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

 

 

Clouds drift over the dome-covered seismometer
NASA’s InSight used its Instrument Context Camera (ICC) beneath the lander’s deck to image these drifting clouds at sunset. This series of images was taken on April 25, 2019, the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, starting at around 6:30 p.m. Mars local time. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

Put an ear to the ground on Mars and you’ll be rewarded with a symphony of sounds. Granted, you’ll need superhuman hearing, but NASA’s InSight lander comes equipped with a very special “ear.”

The spacecraft’s exquisitely sensitive seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), can pick up vibrations as subtle as a breeze. The instrument was provided by the French space agency, Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), and its partners.

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This entry was posted in Cosmology, European Space Agency, Imperial College London, UK, Mars, Mars Insight Lander, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Missions and Studies Specific To Mars, NASA/JPL-Caltech, News, Oxford University, UK, Planetary Science, Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika, Poland, Research for Manned Trip to Mars, Seismometer on Mars, Sounds On Mars Study, Study of Marsquakes, Unmanned Probe and tagged , , , , , , .