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Updated September 20th, 2022 at 16:54 IST

Soundtrack of Mars? NASA's Insight lander heard meteors crashing & it may surprise you 

NASA's Insight lander picked up signals of four meteors that entered the Martian atmosphere and crashed into the surface forming craters, the agency revealed.

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
NASA
Image: NASA | Image:self
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NASA’s Insight lander, according to NASA, has achieved a surprising milestone, which is recording the sounds of new craters being made on Mars. The robot, using its seismometer, picked up signals of meteors entering the Martian atmosphere and crashing into the ground, which NASA says has been recorded for the first time by Insight's teams. Interestingly, this signal has been converted into sound, check it out below.

The audio shared above represents three events as they occur, which are the meteoroids entering the atmosphere, breaking into pieces and hitting the ground. NASA explained that the impact sounds like a bloop "due to a peculiar atmospheric effect heard when bass sounds arrive before high-pitched sounds". These sounds are from four meteors that struck the red planet in 2020 and 2021. 

NASA shows proof of meteor impacts

(Meteor impacts on Mars; Image: NASA)

Soon after the impact signals were picked up by Insight, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over to the site and captured darkened patches of the ground using its HiRISE camera. According to NASA, the meteor strikes occurred on September 5 last year and caused a small marsquake which became the first to be detected by the Insight mission. 

"The instrument recorded seismological data that showed the moment the meteoroid entered Mars' atmosphere, its explosion into pieces in the atmosphere, and finally, the impact that created a series of at least three craters in the surface", the agency said in an official statement. Scientists believe that apart from the three relatively big craters, smaller ones, which are not visible in MRO's image, might have also been formed.

The impacts, according to NASA, created a Marsquake of magnitude no more than 2.0 thus providing scientists with only a glimpse into the Martian crust. Scientists believe that seismic data offer various clues that will help researchers better understand the red planet's crust, mantle and core and would reveal new information about its chaotic past.

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Published September 20th, 2022 at 16:54 IST

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