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What does it sound like when a space rock hits the surface of Mars? The answer is «bloop,» according to NASA’s InSight lander. Its earthquake-hunting seismometer picked up on a series of meteoroids that impacted Mars in 2020 and 2021.
The impacts and InSight’s detections are the subject of a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday. «Not only do these represent the first impacts detected by the spacecraft’s seismometer since InSight touched down on the red planet in 2018, it also marks the first time seismic and acoustic waves from an impact have been detected on Mars,» NASA said in a statement.
The first (and most dramatic) detection scientists noticed was from Sept. 5, 2021. InSight picked up on seismic waves from a rock that exploded into at least three sections, each one leaving a mark in the form of a crater. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) checked out the impact site and spotted the craters, confirming the source of the waves «heard» by the lander’s seismometer.
