November 26, 2018 was another victory for NASA, because the InSight spacecraft performed a successful landing on the Martian surface. This landing ground is destined to uncover important secrets of the Red Planet. And on April 6, 2019, she was lucky, as she could have managed to fix the first marshling.
The fixation of Martian shakes is one of the key objectives of the InSight mission. Scientists had to spend several months to catch the first shocks from the bowels of the planet. And this is not surprising, because no one expected that the events of upheavals would be as frequent as on Earth. The fact is that Mars has no activity on tectonic plates like on our planet.
What creates the marsh shakes? It's all about slow cooling of the celestial body, leading to sporadic shocks, when energy passed through the inner part of the planet. On April 6, the signal was caught using a sensitive seismometer SEIS. In addition, similar weak signals were recorded on March 14, April 10 and 11. It is important to understand that measuring tremors on Mars is a difficult task. The device was designed to protect it from the wind. In addition, it is necessary to distinguish the marsh shakes from inside the planet from the meteorites that hit the surface.
InSight seismometer found a comfortable shelter on Mars
Unfortunately, the April 6 event was not strong enough to fulfill the main objective of the mission - to analyze the internal structure of the Red Planet. But this is a great start. Scientists still need to confirm that a particular event was a marsh shake, and did not appear due to the influence of wind and noise.
However, it is great to recognize that seismic activity exists on Mars. Why is it important? Back in 2016, it was assumed that marshmallows should form a sufficient amount of oxygen so that primitive organisms could exist in the Martian depths (they are powered by gas). It turns out that under the surface of Mars you can find the most favorable conditions for the formation of life. But this theory has yet to be tested.
