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Probe measures three major quakes on Mars

2021-09-24T01:53:13.025Z


The Martian floor recently shook several times, in one case even for 90 minutes. The vibrations were stronger than anything the InSight probe had ever registered there before - they were only detected by a trick.


Enlarge image

Model of the NASA probe on Mars

Photo: Nicolas Sarter / IPGP / NASA

The Martian floor rocked for an hour and a half last week.

With a magnitude of 4.2, the earthquake on September 18 was the strongest of a total of three that the Mars probe "InSight" measured within four weeks.

Two more quakes measuring 4.2 and 4.1 were registered on August 25, announced the US space agency Nasa.

"A magnitude 4.2 quake has five times the energy of the mission's previous record holder - a magnitude 3.7 quake that was discovered in 2019," the organization said.

The fact that the seismometer on the device could even be used during the time when Mars was trembling so clearly was due to a trick by the scientists.

The lander threatened to run out of power because a thick layer of dust had formed on the solar cells for the energy supply to the seismometer.

With a remote-controlled robotic arm, NASA scattered sand near one of the probe's solar cells.

When the wind blew this over the solar cell, it also took a large part of the dust deposited there with it - and the solar cell was able to continue to supply the lander with energy.

Quake weaker and less frequent

The marsquake mission has been running since November 2018 and is the first of its kind. It has already provided evidence that not only the earth and moon, but also Mars are seismically active.

In the first ten months, the instruments recorded 174 tremors, an average of one every other day.

This is rarer than on earth, and the quakes are weaker.

Researchers hope that the measurements will provide new insights into the structure of Mars.

They assume that the red planet, like the earth, has an onion-like structure.

The core inside is followed by a rock mantle and on the outside a crust (read more about this here).

The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research is also involved in the mission.

"There are many theories and models that describe the thickness and composition of these layers," said Ulrich Christensen when he presented the first results last year.

"However, only seismological measurements on site can provide certainty."

An earthquake would create waves that propagate along the surface of the planet, as well as pressure and shear waves inside.

They run through the layers at different speeds and are broken and reflected at their limits, explained the Max Planck experts.

When and where the waves reach the surface, conclusions can be drawn about the internal structure of the planet.

While »Insight« has been reliably delivering data for several years despite intermittent energy problems, it is not the first attempt to measure the vibrating Martian floor.

The first landing probes that reached the planet in 1976 also had seismometers with them.

As it turned out afterwards, they only recorded the wind.

fww / dpa

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-09-24

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