Humanity Can Listen To The Winds On Mars For The First Time Ever

Now, you can be one of the very first people who listen to the winds on Mars, thanks to NASA’s InSight lander.

Less than two weeks have passed since InSight touched down on the Surface of the Red Planet and we’re already receiving amazing data that we can contemplate.

And we’re not only referring to the images that the lander has been sending as these are just the beginning anyway.

The latest release from the InSight team is truly a first of its kind. This is the very first time when humans are able to hear the sounds of the winds on the Red Planet.

Sounds recorded by the seismometer on Mars

The rumbling noise that you can hear in the clip includes the vibrations that are caused by the winds flowing over InSight’s solar panels which were recorded by the lander’s sensitive seismometer.

This is called SEIS, and it listens to the pulse of the planet. It records waves that are traveling through the interior of the planet.

Studying the seismic waves can tell us what’s creating them. Here, on Mars, experts believe that the culprits may be Marsquakes or meteorites that are striking the planet.

“Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat,” said InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt, according to NASA.

The Weather Network cites NASA and explains the following:

“Two very sensitive sensors on the spacecraft detected these wind vibrations: an air pressure sensor inside the lander and a seismometer sitting on the lander’s deck, awaiting deployment by InSight’s robotic arm. The two instruments recorded the wind noise in different ways. The air pressure sensor, part of the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem (APSS), which will collect meteorological data, recorded these air vibrations directly. The seismometer recorded lander vibrations caused by the wind moving over the spacecraft’s solar panels.”

Rada Mateescu

I have been blogging and posting articles for over eight years, but my passion for writing dates back in 2000. I am especially enthusiastic about technology, science, and health-related issues. When I’m not researching and writing the latest news, I’m either watching sci-fi and horror movies or checking out places worth visiting and building deep memories for later in life. I believe in empathy and continually improving myself.