NASA’s InSight Mars Lander It recorded the largest earthquake ever on Mars.
According to new research published in Geophysical Research Letters, the journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the international team said that on the Earth night of May 4, the lander’s seismometer detected an earthquake at least five times the magnitude of the next largest earthquake recorded. on the red planet.
“This was definitely the biggest earthquake we’ve ever seen,” said Taichi Kawamura, lead author and planetary scientist at the Institut de physique du Globe de Globe in France.
Co-author and seismologist John Clinton of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich said the energy released by a single earthquake is equivalent to the cumulative energy from all other earthquakes ever seen.
NASA’s MARS LANDER INSIGHT PROVIDES POSSIBLE FINAL IMAGE OF RED PLANET AS POWER FASTER
Clinton, who was co-leader with Kawamura on the Marsquake service, said the waves recorded on InSight were so large that they nearly saturated the seismometer.
A view of Mars from NASA’s Mars InSight Lander.
(NASA/Twitter)
Waves from the Mars earthquake last about 10 hours.
No previous Martian earthquake had the waves exceeded an hour.
The previous largest tremor recorded in August 2021 was 4.2 magnitude, while the May earthquake was 4.7 magnitude.
The epicenter of the earthquake was outside The most seismically active region on Mars.
This seismic event was also rare in that it exhibited characteristics of both high and low frequency earthquakes.
The domed seismometer aboard NASA’s InSight Lander has measured Mars’ largest earthquake.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech.)
Data from this major earthquake was published in October by the Mars Internal Structure Seismic Experiment (SEIS) data service, NASA Planetary Data System (PDS), and the Joint Seismological Research Institutes (IRIS) together with the marsquake service catalogue.
IMAGE FROM NASA’s WEBB TELESCOPE SHOWS EARLY STAR FORMATION IN ‘RARE’ FINDING
Seismology on Mars could help researchers better understand what’s under its surface and its evolution.
Most earthquakes are believed to be caused by fault movements.
This image shows the domed Wind and Thermal Shield covering InSight’s seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Internal Structure, or SEIS.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)
InSight is thought to be nearing the end of its working life as dust gradually covered the solar panels and reduced its power.
“We are impressed that we experienced this extraordinary event, almost at the end of the extended mission,” said Kawamura.
By Data from the Mars earthquake“I would say this mission has been an extraordinary achievement,” he continued.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APP
“My strength is really low, so this may be the last image I can post. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and calm. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’m Insight’s 25-30 man team, landing on Monday. “We’ll be leaving soon,” read on his agent’s Twitter account. “Thanks for staying with me.”
Since landing in November 2018, the lander has provided insight into the composition of Mars’ liquid core and other inner layers. Hundreds of earthquakes have been detected.
Paul Best of Fox News contributed to this report.
