</s>The American space agency's InSight lander appears to have detected its first seismic event on Mars after touched down on the Red Planet in November last year.

The faint rumble was picked up by the probe's sensors on April 6 -- the 128th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

It is the first seismic signal detected on the surface of a planetary body other than the Earth and its Moon, the BBC reported.

Scientists say the source for this "Marsquake" could either be movement in a crack inside the planet or the shaking from a meteorite impact.

InSight's scientists say the character of the rumble reminds them very much of the type of data the Apollo sensors gathered on the lunar surface.

Astronauts installed five seismometers that measured thousands of quakes while operating on the Moon between 1969 and 1977.

The InSight aims to identify multiple quakes, to help build a clearer picture of Mars' interior structure.

Researchers can then compare this with Earth's internal rock layering, to learn something new about the different ways in which these two worlds have evolved.

Get the best of News18 delivered to your inbox - subscribe to News18 Daybreak. Follow News18.com on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and on YouTube, and stay in the know with what's happening in the world around you – in real time.</s>NASA may have recorded the first-ever "marsquake," thanks to its InSight lander.

According to a statement from the government space agency, the lander recorded the signal on Martian soil on April 6, InSight's 128th day on Mars. It is also the first recorded trembling "that appears to have come from inside the planet, as opposed to being caused by forces above the surface, such as wind."

NASA added that scientists are still looking at the data to determine exactly what caused the signal.

"The Martian Sol 128 event is exciting because its size and longer duration fit the profile of moonquakes detected on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions," Lori Glaze, Planetary Science Division director at NASA headquarters, said in the statement.

Although there is much buzz about the so-called "marsquake," the tremor would not even be noticed on Earth. "An event of this size in Southern California would be lost among dozens of tiny crackles that occur every day," NASA wrote in the statement.

InSight, which landed safely on the Red Planet in November after "seven minutes of terror" due to the agency's inability to control the landing of the spacecraft, is continuing the scientific legacy of NASA's Apollo missions, (which detected quakes on the Moon) said InSight Principal Investigator, Bruce Banerd. "We've been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology!" he exclaimed.

Costing $828 million, the InSight lander is the space agency’s first probe to reach the Red Planet in six years, following the August 2012 landing of the Curiosity Rover. The unmanned probe, which is built by Lockheed Martin, will dig deeper into the planet than anything that's come before.

MARS MAY HAVE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF WATER UNDERNEATH THE SURFACE

The InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission, which is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will provide scientists with a wealth of data. “The landing will kick off a two-year mission in which InSight will become the first spacecraft to study Mars' deep interior,” explained NASA, on its website. “Its data also will help scientists understand the formation of all rocky worlds, including our own.”

The lander had originally been scheduled to blast off in March 2016, but NASA suspended its launch preparations when a vacuum leak was found in the craft’s prime science instrument.

In February, NASA encountered a problem with InSight after it stopped digging, likely due to hitting a rock or gravel, an issue which has since been resolved.

Fox News’ James Rogers and The Associated Press contributed to this article.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP</s>SAN FRANCISCO -- Scientists are celebrating what they consider to be a major breakthrough in learning more about Mars.A rumbling on the Red Planet, or what researchers are calling a Marsquake, was captured by a NASA probe.NASA's InSight Lander delivered a seismic monitor several months ago.Scientists believe the Marsquake was about as strong as about a magnitude two quake here on earth.</s>There are earthquakes and moonquakes, and now a NASA spacecraft has detected what's believed to be a "marsquake" on the Red Planet.

NASA's InSight lander, which touched down on Mars in November after a seven-month journey, sensed the seismic signal on April 6, the space agency said Tuesday.

Mission scientists are still working to confirm the source of the faint trembling, though it appears to have come not from the wind or movement of the lander's robotic arm but from below the Martian surface. If confirmed, it would be the first seismic activity ever detected on Mars.

"We've been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology!" Bruce Banerdt, a geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the principal investigator of the InSight mission, said in a statement.

The 800-pound lander is parked on the Elysium Planitia, a broad, mostly rock-free plain just north of the Martian equator. The lander is designed to operate on the surface of Mars for two years, learning about the Martian interior as a way to boost our understanding of the formation of Mars and other rocky worlds, including Mercury, Venus, Earth and the moon.

The detection of the marsquake shows that the lander's Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) seismometer is working, though the tremor was too small to reveal anything about the Martian interior. But mission scientists expect the lander to detect more — and bigger — quakes.

"We expect to get one quake larger by a factor 10 approximately every 5-10 quakes," Philippe Lognonné, a professor of geophysics and planetary science at the University of Paris Diderot and the leader of the seismometer team, said in an email. "These larger quakes will be those enabling us to make the full science we want to make on the internal structure, and which will tell us the crust thickness and core size. Not this one."

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SIGN UP FOR THE MACH NEWSLETTER AND FOLLOW NBC NEWS MACH ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK, AND INSTAGRAM.</s>NASA’s Martian mole successfully captured what is likely the first-ever recorded tremor on the red planet, and it sounds eerily peaceful.

 

 The Mars lander Insight put out the French-built seismometer, Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS, in December on the Martian surface. On April 6, SEIS picked up a quiet signal that appeared to be coming from inside the planet, according to NASA.

 

 A quake of this intensity wouldn’t have registered on Earth, according to the French space agency, Centre National d’Études Spatiales, or CNES, but because there is almost no excess noise on Mars, the extremely sensitive sensors picked up the tremor.

 

 Unfortunately, “the seismic event was too small to provide useful data on the Martian interior, which is one of InSight's main objectives, according to CNES, the agency that provided SEIS.

 

 What InSight’s teams can compare the tremors to are those measured on the moon by Apollo astronauts between 1969 and 1972, which revealed the moon is still geologically active. Insight’s team members believe the same is true for Mars.

 

 "We've been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology,” InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt said.

 

 Three weaker seismic signals were also detected March 14, April 10 and April 11, according to NASA.

 

 Scientists are still examining the data to determine the exact cause of the signals detected.

 The detection of the soft tremble was a major accomplishment in engineering and an international collaboration, according to the CNES news release.

 

 While the SEIS instrument was provided for by CNES, InSight’s Marsquake Service team, led by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, identified the tremors.

 

 On Earth, seismometers can be placed underground to better detect quakes without interference but SEIS is on the Mars surface and gets help from a protective shield built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to block wind and extreme temperature changes.

 

 Unlike earthquakes, which happen on faults created by the motion of tectonic plates, Mars and the moon do not have tectonic plates. According to NASA, Mars tremors are caused by the process of cooling that, over time, creates stress on the planet’s interior until it is strong enough to break the crust.

 

 Associate Administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen said this is the first step in a new field of study on "Marsquakes."

 

 This is just the beginning for InSight and its sensitive seismometer.

 

 “We are delighted about this first achievement and are eager to make many similar measurements with SEIS in the years to come,” Charles Yana, SEIS mission operations manager at CNES said.

 

 InSight has also gifted us other first “sounds” form the Martian surface.

 

 On Tuesday CNES, JPL and NASA released the greatest hits of the first Mars sounds, including peculiar noises made by Martian wind, the “likely Marsquake” and noises form the lander’s robotic arm moving.</s>NASA's InSight lander appears to have caught evidence of the first ever "faints rumbles" from inside Mars. This was likely the first Marsquake ever detected by instruments on the Red Planet.

Mission scientists working from data collected by the InSight lander, a robotic geologist sent by NASA to investigate the planet's quakes, tremors and heat escaping from the surface. Seismic tremors on Mars like the ones that we experience on Earth are something scientists have theorized and suspected for a long time, but only now found evidence for on data from 6 April.

The new discovery could go a long way in understanding the origins of our neighbouring planet. Tremors in Mars' interiors were also among the InSight mission's key science goals. The lander picked up on movement under its robotic feet in the first confirmed "marsquake" recorded in history.

The instrument that made the finding possible was a dome-shaped probe — the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) — made its touchdown on Mars in December 2018 after hitching a ride on the InSight spacecraft. The SEIS instruments listen to vibrations on the surface of Mars caused by weather, but also detect movement from deep within the planet (the so-called "marsquakes"), as well as other tremors that are caused by meteorites impacting the planet.

The SEIS is operated by the French space agency CNES, which reported that it had detected "a weak but distinct seismic signal" from the probe.

"We've been waiting months for our first marsquake," Philippe Lognonné, the principal investigator for SIES, said in a statement by CNES.

"It's so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active."

While scientists suspected Marsquakes still exist, they didn't consider these rumbles to be as frequent as the ones we experience on Earth. Mars and the Moon do not have tectonic plates — massive fragments of the Earth's outer shell that glide over the mantle and rub against each other occasionally, releasing vibrations that are felt on the surface as Earthquakes. Yet, both still experience quakes.

The popular opinion among geologists is that the quakes on Mars and the Moon doesn't have to do with tectonic plates at all. On Mars, scientists suspected that quakes were caused by the slow cooling of planet's core over millions of years that may trigger sporadic quakes as energy swept through the interior of the planet. InSight's discovery of a confirmed Marsquake is big news, but its longer mission is quite the challenge: to study the structure of Mars's interior. This particular quake was not powerful enough to produce the data NASA needs to analyze either the cause or make sense of the structure within.

But InSight still has a decade and a half of exploration to dig up more answers about Mars and its past. And a discovery this big in its first year is a promising start.

Tech2 is now on WhatsApp. For all the buzz on the latest tech and science, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Tech2.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.</s>For the first time, NASA's robotic probe InSight has picked up what scientists believe to be a quake on Mars.

The data came on 6th April in the form of a faint seismic signal, about five months after the lander touched down on the Martian surface. It was InSight's 128th sol (Martian day) on the Red Planet.

According to NASA, the seismic signal was detected by the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, which is capable of measuring a seismic wave just one-half the radius of a hydrogen atom. The instrument is highly sensitive and needs protection from the wind. That's why it always remains covered by a dome-shaped shield that enables it to focus only on the interior of the planet.

NASA scientists are still studying the SEIS data to determine the exact cause of the signal, but the high frequency of the signal and its broad band suggests that it likely came from the Mars' interior and was not caused by wind shaking the instrument.

So far, InSight has detected three other signals of seismic activity on Mars - on 14th March, 10th April, and 11th April. All these signals were recorded by SEIS' Very Broad Band sensors, but they were weaker than the signal recorded on 6th April.

The Martian surface is extremely quiet compared with the Earth's, which continuously experiences seismic noise produced by weather processes, oceans, and tremors occurring along fault lines.

Mars, on the other hand, lacks tectonic plates, and its seismic activity is mainly driven by a process that involves slow cooling and contracting in the interior. This process eventually leads to building up of stress, which over time becomes strong enough to rupture the crust.

The Mars InSight team hopes to use the probe's Marsquake data to eventually figure out what Mars is made of. As the waves generated from a quake travel across the rocks within the planet, the signals can provide significant details about the interior of Mars.

"It's so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active," said Philippe Lognonné, the principal investigator for SEIS.

"We're looking forward to sharing detailed results once we've had a chance to analyse them," he added.

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Ten crucial technology areas are already covered at launch, with more data appearing and more areas being covered every week. Sign-up here for your free trial of the Computing Delta website.</s>NASA HAS SAID its InSight lander might have detected the first-known seismic tremor on Mars – or what it has dubbed “Marsquake”.

The faint seismic signal was detected by the lander’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument on 6 April.

This is the first recorded trembling that appears to have come from inside the planet, according to Nasa, as opposed to being caused by forces above the surance, such as wind.

The SEIS instrument measures surface vibrations caused by weather but is also capable of detecting movement from deep within the planet – so called “marsquakes” – or those caused by meteorite impacts.

The French space agency Cnes, which operates SEIS, said it had detected “a weak but distinct seismic signal” from the probe.

The team hopes to be able to gather information about the activity at the centre of Mars, hopefully providing insight into its formation billions of years ago.

“It’s great to finally have a sign that there’s still seismic activity on Mars,” said Philippe Lognonne, a researcher at Paris’ Institut de Physique du Globe.

“We’ve waited for our first Martian quake for months.”

Nasa has said the new seismic event was too small to provide solid data on the Martian interior, which is one of InSight’s main objectives.

The Martian surface is extremely quiet, allowing SEIS, InSight’s specially designed seismometer, to pick up faint rumbles.

In contrast, Earth’s surface is quivering constantly from seismic noise created by oceans and weather. An event of this size in Southern California would be lost among dozens of tiny crackles that occur every day.

According to NASA’s Bruce Banerdt, the quake detection “marks the birth of a new discipline: Martian seismology”.

The team said they were still working to confirm the cause of the tremor and ensure it came from the planet’s interior rather than wind or noise distortion.

It said three other similar but weaker signals of tremors had been picked up by the apparatus.</s>Using its ultra-sensitive seismometer, NASA’s InSight lander has waited patiently to detect its first marsquake. Scientists now have good reason to believe it finally happened.



On December 19, 2018, the InSight lander successfully deployed its Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, followed by the placement of the seismometer’s protective dome in early February 2019. The device began its monitoring duties a short time later—and it now appears to have detected a marsquake, according to a NASA press release.

The event in question happened on April 6, 2019. NASA is still looking at the data to figure out the exact cause of the apparent rumbling. If confirmed, however, it would be the first geologically induced tremor ever detected on another planet (as opposed to a tremor caused by a meteorite strike or high winds).

“We’ve been waiting months for a signal like this,” said SEIS team lead Philippe Lognonné in the press release. “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 analyze them.”

The apparent marsquake featured a strength and duration reminiscent of moonquakes detected during the Apollo missions. To be clear, however, this event was exceptionally weak, and not the kind of tremor that would send objects tumbling off shelves if it were to happen on Earth. As the NASA press release noted, an “event of this size in Southern California would be lost among dozens of tiny crackles that occur every day.”

Events of this nature work a bit differently on the Red Planet than on Earth. On our planet, earthquakes happen along faults, the result of shifting tectonic plates. Mars, on the other hand, is largely devoid of plates, but quakes still happen. Cycles of cooling and contracting create internal stresses that are strong enough to rupture the crust, generating marsquakes. By detecting and studying these tremors, scientists are hoping to learn more about the Martian interior, and how rocky planets formed.

“We’ve been collecting background noise up until now,” said InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt in the press release. “But this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology!”

The SEIS instrument also picked up anomalous events on March 14, April 10, and April 11, but they were much weaker. The origin of these events remains unclear, and NASA is continuing to investigate.

This apparent detection of a marsquake is very exciting and very encouraging. It’s good to see the SEIS instrument do what it’s supposed to do, especially given the lack of success with InSight’s drill, which appears to have gotten stuck on a rock.
NASA reports the first detection of a likely Marsquake by the InSight Mars lander.