An international team of scientists discovered the source of the largest tremor ever recorded on the surface of Mars in May 2022. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Geophysical Research Letters (GRL).
A magnitude 4.7 seismic tremor was recorded by NASA’s InSight landing module. The Marsquake lasted at least six hours and affected the entire planet.
It was initially assumed that the shaking of Mars was caused by a meteorite. However, it was not possible to find new craters during the examination of the surface of the red planet. It took several months to survey an area of 144 million square kilometers.
The team concluded that the Marsquake was caused by the release of enormous tectonic forces in the planet’s interior. This suggests that Mars is much more seismically active than previously thought.
“Today, we still think there is no active plate tectonics on Mars, so this event was probably caused by a stress release in the Martian crust. We still don’t fully understand why some parts of the planet experience higher voltages than others. One day this knowledge could lead to where humans live on Mars.” “It will help us understand whether it will be safe,” explained study leader Dr. Benjamin Fernando.
Earlier astronomers in the name flickering of neutron stars caused by short radio pulses from space.