Meteoroid Impacts on Mars Reveal Deeper Seismic Signals Than Previously Thoght
Recent research has unveiled that meteoroid impacts on Mars produce seismic signals that penetrate deeper into the planet’s interior than scientists had previously understood.Published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) on February 3, 2025, the study leverages data from NASA’s InSight lander and the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter (MRO) to shed new light on the Red Planet’s seismic activity.
The InSight mission,wich concluded in 2022,installed the first seismometer on Mars,detecting over 1,300 marsquakes. These quakes were caused by both internal factors, such as rocks cracking under heat and pressure, and external events like meteoroid impacts.By analyzing how seismic waves travel through Mars’ crust, mantle, and core, scientists gain insights into the formation of rocky planets, including Earth and the Moon.
One of the most striking findings involves a 71-foot (21.5-meter) diameter crater in Cerberus Fossae,a seismically active region located 1,019 kilometers from InSight. Researchers discovered that the seismic waves from this impact traveled deeper and faster than expected, suggesting a “seismic highway” through the planet’s mantle.
“In the past, we thought the energy detected from most seismic events was trapped in Mars’s crust,” said Constantinos Charalambous, a member of the InSight team from Imperial College London. “This finding shows a deeper path and faster—just call it a seismic highway—through the mantle, which allows the earthquake to reach a further area in this planet.”
AI Accelerates Crater Discovery
The discovery of the Cerberus Fossae crater was made possible by an artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This machine learning algorithm sifted through tens of thousands of black-and-white images captured by the MRO’s Context camera, identifying potential impact sites in a matter of hours.
“If done manually, this will take years,” said Valentin Bickel, an InSight team member from the University of Bern, Switzerland. “By using this tool, we changed tens of thousands of images into only a handful of images in a matter of days.It’s not as good as humans, but this is very fast.”
The AI tool flagged 123 new craters, 49 of which matched seismic events recorded by InSight. Further analysis by seismologists narrowed the focus to the cerberus Fossae crater, which provided critical data on how seismic signals propagate through Mars.
Implications for Planetary Science
The findings not only enhance our understanding of Mars’ interior but also demonstrate the power of AI in planetary science.Beyond crater detection, researchers have used AI to identify landslides, dust devils, and seasonal dark features on Mars, as well as craters and landslides on the Moon.
“Now we have so many pictures from the Moon and Mars so that the challenge is processing and analyzing the data,” Bickel noted. “We finally arrived in the era of big data in the science of planets.”
Key Findings at a Glance
| Aspect | Details |
|————————–|—————————————————————————–|
| Seismic signal Depth | Deeper than previously thought, traveling through Mars’ mantle. |
| Crater Location | Cerberus Fossae, 1,019 km from InSight.|
| Crater Size | 71 feet (21.5 meters) in diameter. |
| AI Contribution | Identified 123 new craters, 49 matching seismic events. |
| scientific Impact | Improves understanding of Mars’ interior and seismic wave propagation.|
This groundbreaking research underscores the importance of combining advanced technology with traditional scientific methods to unlock the mysteries of our solar system. For more updates on planetary science and space exploration, follow Channel WhatsApp Medcom.id and stay tuned to Google News.
