Exploring the red planet
A new wave of missions aim to unlock the secrets of Mars
A Nasa probe on Mars has detected a seismological tremor on the red planet that is being dubbed a “marsquake”.
The US space agency has announced that on 6 April, its InSight lander detected a faint seismic signal that is believed to have emanated from beneath the surface of the planet, as opposed to being caused by forces above such as wind, The Guardian reports. The breakthrough comes five months after the robotic probe touched down on Mars.
French space agency CNES, which built the seismometer, says it had been “waiting months for our first marsquake”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“It’s so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active,” the agency said in a statement. “This first event officially kicks off a new field - Martian seismology.”
So what is a marsquake?
Mars does not have tectonic plates and does “not produce the kind of cataclysmic quakes that we sometimes experience on Earth”, explains Vice’s Motherboard.
Instead, quakes on Mars are caused by “faults or fractures in the crust” which in turn may be the result of meteorite impacts, “surface shrinkage due to planetary cooling, or the pressure of magma pushing up toward the surface”, says Live Science.
Humans have tried to measure Martian tremors with seismometers since the 1970s, but have not been successful until now.
How was it measured?
In November, Nasa’s InSight probe touched down on the red planet carrying an instrument dubbed the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), designed by CNES. The instrument was then deployed to the surface of Mars the following month.
Nasa’s website reports that on Earth, high-quality seismometers are “sealed in underground vaults to isolate them from changes in temperature and weather”. Because of the more extreme conditions on Mars, SEIS was fitted with “several ingenious insulating barriers, including a cover... called the Wind and Thermal Shield, to protect it from the planet’s extreme temperature changes and high winds”, the space agency says.
On the lander’s 128th Martian day, a faint rumble was detected by the instrument and recorded by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Professor Tom Pike, one of the SEIS designers, told the BBC that the quake was too small to calculate the source or the distance from the probe to the event.
“It’s probably only a Magnitude 1 to 2 event, perhaps within 100km [62 miles] or so,” he said.
Why is it significant?
The vibrations from marsquakes move through the interior of the red planet and “bump into and reflect off of different materials underground”, says Live Science.
The researchers believe that because different materials transmit and reflect these vibrations in various ways, they will be able to use SEIS data to recreate a 3D view of the Martian interior, giving us a good idea of how the planet was formed.
Unlike on Earth, where constant tectonic activity has erased much of the historical rock formations that might tell us about the origins of our planet, Mars’ lack of tectonic activity means that much of its history is still buried in its interior, untouched for millions of years.
Although the quake recorded was far too small to give scientists any concrete information about the interior of the planet, further tremors should provide more data over time.
Tanya Harrison, a Mars scientist at Arizona State University, told National Geographic that SEIS is “helping paint the picture that Mars is still an active place”.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Consumers fed up with food costs ditch big brands'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
What would it be like in jail for Trump if he's convicted?
Today's Big Question The Secret Service has begun grappling with how to protect a former president behind bars
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
How much can you save shopping secondhand?
The Explainer Many Americans are buying pre-owned items to counteract the effects of inflation
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
Rolls-Royce gets £2.9m for ‘James Bond’ Moon project
Speed Read British engineering giant tasked with creating a nuclear reactor to power a lunar base for scientists
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
Ancient microbes on Mars blamed for climate change
Speed Read Researchers suggest organisms may show that ‘common fate of life in the universe is to self-destruct’
By The Week Staff Published
-
Artemis 1: behind Nasa’s ‘Moon-to-Mars’ mission
feature US space agency forced to postpone launch that will eventually return humans to lunar surface
By The Week Staff Published
-
Nasa set to declare Mars rover ‘dead’
Speed Read Opportunity rover has not been heard from in eight months following massive dust storm
By The Week Staff Published
-
Nasa InSight probe lands safely on Mars
Speed Read New probe set to study the deep interior of the Red Planet
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Nasa defends decision to send people to moon before Mars
Speed Read Space agency’s new boss says the two missions are far from incompatible
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Obama calls for manned mission to Mars by 2030s
Speed Read US President to meet scientists, engineers and students this week to 'dream up ways to find the next frontiers'
By The Week Staff Published
-
Lift off for Europe and Russia's joint mission to Mars
Speed Read Satellite's search for methane gas will show whether life existed on the red planet
By The Week Staff Published