Nasa’s Mars InSight lander has detected the first ever seismic and acoustic waves generated by meteorite strikes on another planet and located the impact crate sites. The new findings can help researchers better understand the makeup and structure of the Martian crust.
Nasa’s InSight mission, which arrived on Mars on 26 November 2018, used seismology and heat sensing instruments to study the internal structure of the Red Planet.
Researchers studied shockwaves generated by four meteors that entered the Martian atmosphere at high speed before impacting on the ground. They used imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to locate the impact craters.
The findings suggest that seismology can be used to study the interior of planets and meteorite impacts, including Mars.
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