NASA's InSight Mars probe detected the largest earthquake ever observed on another planet: an estimated magnitude 5 tremor that occurred on May 4. This adds to the catalog of more than 1,313 earthquakes that the platform has detected since it landed on Mars in
November 2018
. The largest earthquake previously recorded was of an estimated magnitude of 4.2 detected on August 25, 2021.
InSight was sent to Mars with a highly sensitive seismometer, provided by France's National Center for Space Studies (CNES), to study the planet's deep interior. As seismic waves pass through or are reflected by material in Mars' crust, mantle, and core, they change in ways that seismologists can study to determine the depth and composition of these layers. What scientists learn about the structure of Mars can help them better understand the formation of all rocky worlds, including Earth and its Moon.
A magnitude 5 earthquake is a medium-sized earthquake compared to those felt on Earth, but it is near the upper limit of what scientists expected to see on Mars during the InSight mission. The science team will need to study this new earthquake further before they can provide details such as its location, the nature of its source and what it could tell us about the interior of Mars.
This spectrogram shows the great Mars earthquake
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NASA/JPL-Caltech
"Since we installed our seismometer in December 2018, we've been waiting for 'the big one,'" Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who directs The mission. "This earthquake will surely provide a view of the planet like no other. "Scientists will analyze this data to learn new things about Mars in the years to come."
The big earthquake comes as InSight faces new challenges with its solar panels, which power the mission. As InSight's Mars location enters winter, there is more dust in the air, reducing available sunlight. On May 7, the lander's available power fell just below the limit that activates safe mode, where the spacecraft suspends all but the most essential functions. This reaction is designed to protect the lander and can occur again as the available energy slowly decreases.
After the lander completed its primary mission in late 2020 and met its original science goals, NASA extended the mission until December 2022.