NASA Discovers Quakes on Mars

Robotic Lander InSight Discovers Red Planet Has Seismic Activity

Source:  NASA - InSight

Hundreds of Marsquakes in the Past Year

NASA's robotic lander InSight has delivered some big discovery and innovation dividends.  InSight  just detailed, for the first time, that the Red Planet Mars experiences quakes like the Earth and the Moon.  NASA has called the shakes, rattles and rolls on Mars "Marsquakes".  Incredibly, InSight has detected 450 seismic events on Mars in the past year as it has explored Mars on the ground.  20 of the quakes were significant and in the 3 to 4 point magnitude range.

NASA First

According to NASA, this is the first time that they've established that Mars is a seismically active planet.  InSight's observations will help scientists better understand how rocky planets like Mars and the Earth form and evolve.  And the lander's sensors also detected significant winds swirling around Mars.  In fact, there are thousands of passing whirlwinds whipping around Mars.

Mars Quakes

Compared to quakes on the Earth and the Moon, the Mars quakes are relatively small.  Mars is more seismically active than the Moon but less so than the Earth.  The Marsquakes provide NASA scientists with new data and information on the interior core of Mars. NASA says the quakes on Mars are caused by the long-term cooling of the planet that makes it contract and facture.

Tech Wonder

InSight is a robotic technological wonder.  The lander is equipped with heat flow probes to take the planet's temperature, sensors to gauge wind and air pressure, seismometers to detect quakes and a magnetometer to detect magnetism.

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amazon.com/author/ekane  I co-authored the books with Ed.