InSight Probe Detects Largest Marsquakes Yet

NASA’s InSight Mars lander, which is managed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is pictured in a self-portrait compiled from photos taken in March and April of 2021. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory-managed InSight Mars lander detected the three biggest Marsquakes scientists have ever seen over the past month, according to JPL.

The discovery was made possible after scientists managed to clear accumulated dust from the probe’s solar panel earlier this summer, extending the spacecraft’s life, JPL said in a written statement.

The largest of the quakes was recorded on Sept. 18, which happened to mark InSight’s 1,000th Martian day, or Sol, on the Red Planet.

“The temblor is estimated to be about a magnitude 4.2 and shook for nearly an hour-and-a-half,” the statement said.

InSight also detected two Marsquakes with magnitudes 4.2 and 4.1 on Aug. 25, officials said.

“For comparison, a magnitude 4.2 quake has five times the energy of the mission’s previous record holder, a magnitude 3.7 quake detected in 2019,” according to the JPL statement.

The observations took place after engineers managed to rescue the troubled NASA probe in June after dust had built up on its solar panels. The team came up with a plan to trickle sand next to the panel in hopes that Martian wind would blow grains across the solar panel, clearing away dust.

The plan worked, said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt of JPL.

“If we hadn’t acted quickly earlier this year, we might have missed out on some great science,” he said. “Even after more than two years, Mars seems to have given us something new with these two quakes, which have unique characteristics.”

InSight is tasked with studying Mars’ seismology in order to learn about the planet’s interior.

More information on the mission is available online at jpl.nasa.gov/missions/insight.

JPL Clears Dust From InSight Mars Lander’s Solar Panel