NASA’s InSight Lander on Mars, two more sharp tremors were detected on the Red Planet, both originating from the same region where the mission’s previous best observations originated.
The robotic geophysicist landed on Mars in November 2018 and after several months of preparation, his seismometer began to feel for so-called “marsquakes. “The mission identified more than 500 tremors in its first year of Mars, but recently heavy winds have prevented the clear signal that scientists need to detect small rumblings in the Red Planet. Now, the weather has changed and in March mission staff had two shakes stronger than magnitude 3.0.
“It’s great to observe an earthquake once again after a long period of wind uptake,” said John Clinton, a seismologist leading the InSight’s Marsquake Service at ETH Zurich said in a statement. “After a year of Mars, we are much faster in characterizing seismic activity on the Red Planet.”
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The two new marsquakes, which InSight spotted on March 7 and 18, both occurred in a region called Cerberus Fossae. This is the same area where the two biggest shakes InSight, which was detected in its first March year, also took place, indicating that the area is seismically very active.
Scientists are particularly intrigued because it appears the four earthquakes are geophysically similar, according to NASA. ‘In the course of the mission we saw two different types of marsquakes: the one that is more ‘lunar’ and the other ‘more’ earth ‘, said Taichi Kawamura, a seismologist from the French Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, in the statement. ‘Interestingly enough … all four of these major earthquakes, coming from Cerberus Fossae, are’ earth-like ‘. “
Meanwhile, the lander is also working on a task that scientists hope will sharpen observations of the earthquake, as the mission lasts another Mars year (which lasts about 687 Earth days). Mission staff suspect that the huge temperature changes between day and night on Mars could cause ‘knocking sounds and nails’ in the data of the seismometer, as the cable connecting the instrument to the main lander expands and contracts.
To try to buffer the cable from these changes, the InSight team uses the lander’s robotic arm to create Mars ground on the cable.
However, NASA warns that this is a difficult time for the lander, which is powered by solar panels. The worst of the planet’s hard dust storm season is over, but InSight’s lily block panels are still covered in dust, despite strong winds in the area. At the same time, the Red Planet drifts away from the sun along its elliptical orbit, which reduces power production. And it’s winter through the lander, which means that cold temperatures threaten the robot’s electronics.
Given the conditions, the mission team expects to have to put the lander and its instruments in hibernation mode shortly this spring later this spring to manage the energy shortage. In July, the orbit of Mars will carry it back to the sun and reduce the voltage on InSight’s systems.
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