NASA scientists have reported an exciting discovery by its Insight lander on Mars – mysterious rumble from inside the planet.
According to the researchers, the seismic events could be caused by a sudden release of energy from the planet’s interior, but the nature of the release remains unknown and puzzling.
Strikingly, the new rumble apparently originated in a place on Mars called Cerberus Fossae, where two other previous candidate opportunities is believed to have originated.
The dome-covered instrument recently detected the rumble
Although this rumble is sometimes called “Marsquakes”, it is not believed that the planet has a similar active tectonic system as the earth that causes earthquakes.
And oddly enough, the previous seismic events detected by the space agency’s InSight lander – which arrived on the planet’s surface in 2018 – took place almost a full Mars years ago, or two Earth years, during the Northern Mars summer.
Scientists predicted this season the lander would have the best opportunity to listen to earthquakes because the wind on the planet would become calmer.
InSight’s seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Indoor Structure (SEIS), is so sensitive that it must be covered by a dome-shaped shield to prevent the wind and prevent it from freezing when used.
Despite this, the wind could still cause enough vibrations to obscure the seismic signals it was looking for, so the NASA team tried to isolate the sensitive cable.
To do this, the team used the spoon at the end of InSight’s robotic arm to make soil glisten on top of the dome-shaped shield so that it could run down the cable.
The intention is to get the ground as close to the shield as possible without interfering with the seal with the ground.
The researchers learn to distinguish the seismic signals
Burial of the seismic determination is one of the goals of the next phase of the mission, which NASA recently extended by two years to December 2022.
But despite the disruption caused by the wind through InSight’s seismometer, it does not give much of the country’s solar panels covered with dust.
The power is now declining as Mars moves away from the sun, although energy levels are expected to rise after July when the planet begins to approach the sun again.
Until then, the team is going to turn off InSight’s instruments one by one so it can sleep, and just wake up from time to time to check on its health and send a message back to earth.
NASA said the team hopes to keep the seismometer on for another month or two before shutting it down.