Roses are red, Summer is coming, I’ve just found out Mars is humming!
When was this discovered and what is causing it? Read on to find out.
Mars… the fourth planet from the Sun. A cold, barren, desert like world. During close approach, when planet Earth and Mars are at their closest to each other during orbit around the Sun, Mars is 38.6 million miles away.
Notwithstanding the impossibility of manned exploration of Mars, it continues to be the subject of scientific research, with NASA sending space rovers, the most recent among them being the ‘Perseverance Rover’, to collect photographs of the land’s topography and samples of Martian rocks and soil.
As far as planetary scientists are concerned, Mars is the gift that keeps on giving. Craters have been discovered. Ancient lakes, rivers and polar ice caps have been discovered; evidence that persistent liquid water existed there in the past. Sulfur, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Carbon have all been detected; chemical elements which support microbial life. We also now know that Mars has a thicker atmosphere, and unsafe levels of radiation.
Mars has since proven to be very seismically active. In November 2018, NASA’s ‘InSight Lander’ arrived on Planet Mars, equipped with seismological equipment (SEIS) which has showed ‘[periodic pulsing] with the beat of quakes rippling around the planet. Hitherto, it has picked up over four hundred and fifty. quakes.
Sure, Earth has Earthquakes… but Earth also has tectonic plates, which Mars does not. What is causing these Martian quakes, then? Well, research suggests that they are a result of Mars contracting as it cools down, causing the brittle outer layers to fracture. They are also said to occur much deeper in the surface than on Earth.
But a more recent discovery has been made; bizarre and fascinating in equal measure. The InSight Lander’s seismometer has also detected ongoing humming under the surface. A similar ‘hum’ on Earth has been previously reported, associated with an underwater volcano, however as of yet the cause of this infrasound on Mars is unknown. It has been suggested that it could be due to both wind above and geological movement below the surface, but this cannot be confirmed. Hopefully, this humming will ultimately reveal something about the internal geological structure of Mars and give Scientists the certainty they are so diligently seeking.
