Dec 14, 2019 06:42 PM
(This post was last modified: Dec 14, 2019 06:46 PM by C C.)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03796-7
EXCERPT: Since arriving on Mars just over a year ago, InSight has detected 322 marsquakes. They are the first quakes ever detected on Mars, and the first on any body other than Earth or the Moon. Scientists aim to use them to probe the Martian interior, including deciphering the planet’s guts into layers of crust, mantle, and core. Most of the marsquakes are tiny, much smaller than anything that would be felt on Earth. But a couple have been big enough — up to nearly magnitude 4 — for scientists to be able to trace them back to their source.
[...] one of InSight’s main goals — to hammer a heat probe 5 metres into the Martian ground — remains frustratingly out of reach. The probe, dubbed ‘the mole’, has encountered more friction in the soil than scientists had expected. In October, it even unexpectedly backed out of its hole.
[...] The marsquakes come in two types. The most common shakes the ground at high frequencies. Less common is a type that is detectable at lower frequencies. The high-frequency signals might be coming from quakes that rupture the shallow Martian crust, whereas the low-frequency ones might be travelling from deeper within the planet, in its mantle, said Domenico Giardini, a seismologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
[...] The rate of quakes has been increasing, Banerdt said — from a few sporadic tremors reported after InSight landed to the current pace of two a day. Mission scientists aren’t sure why. Equally mysterious are the magnetic pulses that show up every night. InSight measured them with its magnetometer, and they are thought to be related to something happening in the space environment around Mars. One idea is that they are created when charged particles from the solar wind slam into Mars. (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: Since arriving on Mars just over a year ago, InSight has detected 322 marsquakes. They are the first quakes ever detected on Mars, and the first on any body other than Earth or the Moon. Scientists aim to use them to probe the Martian interior, including deciphering the planet’s guts into layers of crust, mantle, and core. Most of the marsquakes are tiny, much smaller than anything that would be felt on Earth. But a couple have been big enough — up to nearly magnitude 4 — for scientists to be able to trace them back to their source.
[...] one of InSight’s main goals — to hammer a heat probe 5 metres into the Martian ground — remains frustratingly out of reach. The probe, dubbed ‘the mole’, has encountered more friction in the soil than scientists had expected. In October, it even unexpectedly backed out of its hole.
[...] The marsquakes come in two types. The most common shakes the ground at high frequencies. Less common is a type that is detectable at lower frequencies. The high-frequency signals might be coming from quakes that rupture the shallow Martian crust, whereas the low-frequency ones might be travelling from deeper within the planet, in its mantle, said Domenico Giardini, a seismologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
[...] The rate of quakes has been increasing, Banerdt said — from a few sporadic tremors reported after InSight landed to the current pace of two a day. Mission scientists aren’t sure why. Equally mysterious are the magnetic pulses that show up every night. InSight measured them with its magnetometer, and they are thought to be related to something happening in the space environment around Mars. One idea is that they are created when charged particles from the solar wind slam into Mars. (MORE - details)