The Martian earthquake InSight detected in May of this year was at least five times larger than the previous record. A study on the seismic event has just been completed.
The US space agency InSight has been monitoring Martian vibrations for years and studying the composition of the planet. In May of this year, it managed to register a bigger earthquake than ever, with a magnitude of 4.7; this is five times larger than the previous largest earthquake on Mars in August 2021, which was recorded with a magnitude of 4.2 – writes a Space. The importance of the event is clearly indicated by the fact that the instrument still detected shock waves for about ten hours after the earthquake, while the aftermath of previous earthquakes usually subsided within an hour.
John Clinton, A study His co-author said what’s interesting about the May quake is that it alone released as much energy as all the earthquakes previously measured by the facility combined.
NASA’s InSight rover arrived on Mars in November 2018, and although researchers had originally anticipated two years, as things were going well, the space agency extended its mission for another two years. But now the mission is to is about to end, after the structure has become so covered in dust that the solar panels can already supply it with sufficient energy. According to the original plans, the scientific work would have finished as early as July, but the InSight team has decided to fly the device and leave its most important instrument in operation, with which it will be able to continue searching for Martian earthquakes.
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