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Updated May 10th, 2022 at 16:32 IST

NASA's InSight records strongest quake ever detected on Mars; biggest on another planet

NASA’s Insight Mars Lander has recorded the biggest tremble that occurred on the red planet after its landing in November 2018.

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
NASA
Image: JPL | Image:self
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NASA’s Insight Mars Lander has recorded the biggest tremble that occurred on the red planet after its landing in November 2018. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Marsquake was measured magnitude 5 on Insight’s highly sensitive seismometer which has the job of studying the deep interior of Mars. The massive tremor occurred on May 4, 2022 and is the latest addition in over 1,313 quakes detected by the lander so far.

 

The purpose of sending the Insight lander to Mars was to learn about the planet’s structure, in order to understand the formation of all rocky worlds including the Earth and the moon. Bruce Banerdt, InSight’s principal investigator at JPL said that scientists have been waiting for “the big one” ever since Insight made its landing. “This quake is sure to provide a view into the planet like no other. Scientists will be analyzing this data to learn new things about Mars for years to come”, he added. 

(InSight's seismometer; Image: JPL)

NASA says that a magnitude 5 quake is a medium-size quake compared to those felt on Earth, but it’s close to the upper limit of what scientists hoped to see on Mars. Henceforth, the mission team will study the record-breaking tremor before providing details about its location, nature of its source and the overall interior of the red planet.

Notably, Insight recorded the monster quake on Mars at a time when it is struggling to stay awake. Currently, the lander is facing challenges with its solar panels, which are covered in dust and are facing problems in generating power for InSight. The situation is about to get worse as, according to NASA, the location where InSight currently is will enter the winter period which would have more dust in the air and would further reduce the available sunlight. 

Record broken for strongest Marsquake

It was in August 2021 when InSight's seismometer recorded the strongest quake on the red planet. The lander actually recorded two quakes of magnitude 4.1 and 4.2 which lasted for about one and half-hour. NASA had said that the epicenter of the quake this time must have been Cerberus Fossae, where the machine had detected previous quakes. Cerberus Fossae is located around 1609 kilometres away from the place where lava is suspected to have flowed in the last few million years.

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Published May 10th, 2022 at 16:32 IST

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