Scientists are exploring Mars through sounds

Scientists are exploring Mars through sounds Today’s Video of the Day from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) describes how scientists are exploring the planet Mars by recording sounds.

The Perseverance Mars rover carries two microphones that are directly recording audio. This provides experts with an entirely new way to experience the planet. 

“First, we can just learn about the atmosphere by understanding how sound propagates through it, but we can also listen to the sounds of rover analyses on rocks and learn about rock material properties from that,” explained Nina Lanza, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“And finally, we can also listen to the sounds the rover makes to understand better the state of health of our instruments.”

“There’s a difference between Mars and Earth sounds. Sounds on earth have very rich harmonics. You can hear multiple frequencies. It gets a really nice depth to the sound,” said JPL scientist Justin Maki.

“On Mars the atmosphere attenuates a lot of those higher frequencies. So you tend to hear the lower frequencies and it’s a much more isolated sound, a little more muted than the sounds we hear on Earth.”

Video Credit: NASA JPL

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer