Recorded earlier this month, the Mars InSight rover discovered the “marsquake” in what is the first ever trembling to come from the planet. Such is the magnitude of the discovery that it has now created its own field which the expedition’s principal investigator, Bruce Banerdt termed as “martian seismology”. On Earth, the sound would not have been discoverable but due to the silence on Mars, the probe’s instruments picked up the slightest tremors on the planet.
Philippe Lognonné, who leads the team’s seismometer for the experiment, said: “It is the first quake.
“We’ve been waiting for this for months.
“It’s so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active.
“We’re looking forward to sharing detailed results once we’ve had a chance to analyse them.”
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This new sound is the first to come from the inside of the planet as opposed to surface sounds caused by the wind.
The new data, however, does not solve any questions concerning the interior of the planet but still represents a massive breakthrough for the project.
Speaking following the discovery of the sounds, Mr Banert said: “We’ve been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology!”
The discovery of this new data is the biggest finding as the mission commences its two-year spell.
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Mr Longonne insisted that the discovery of such minor quakes at this point in the mission only bodes well for future findings.
He added: “We’re starting to have many small quakes.
“Hopefully we’ll have a super quake by the end.”
The InSight project will cost Nasa £633million ($814million) over two years, as the space agency aims to discover how the planet was formed and ultimately map out its internal core.