The Marsquake will be included in the list of the strongest seismic activity ever recorded on other planets.
InSight was sent to Mars witha highly sensitive seismometer provided by the French National Center for Space Research (CNES) to study the interior of the planet. As seismic waves travel through or reflect off layers of Mars' crust, mantle, and core, they change in ways that seismologists can determine the depth and composition of those layers. What scientists learn about the structure of Mars could help them better understand the formation of all rocky worlds, including the Earth and its Moon.
Spectrogram of a Marsquake with a magnitude of 5.0
A magnitude 5 Marsquake is an earthquakemedium strength by Earth standards, but it is close to the upper limit of what scientists hoped to see on Mars during the InSight mission. The science team will need to further study this new quake before they can provide details such as its location, the nature of its source, and what it can tell us about the interior of Mars.
“Ever since we installed our seismometer inDecember 2018, we were expecting “big,” said Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who is leading the mission. “This marsquake will surely give an insight into the planet like no other. Scientists will analyze this data in order to learn something new about Mars in the coming years.”
The quake occurred amid problems withInSight related to solar panels. As the InSight location on Mars approaches winter, there is more dust in the air, reducing the amount of sunlight available. On May 7, 2022, the lander's available energy fell just below the limit that triggers a safe mode where the spacecraft suspends all but the most essential functions. This reaction is intended to protect the lander and may occur again as the available power slowly decreases.
We add that the quake was recorded on the day when the whole world celebrates the day of the popular Star Wars movie saga - May 4th.
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