Marsquake: First quake on mars recorded by NASA

New Delhi : NASA’s robotic Mars InSight lander is believed to have recorded its first "marsquake", the U.S. space agency said. On April 6, the lander’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument recorder the faint seismic signal.

This is for the first time when the instrument has recorded trembling that is believed of coming from inside the planet, as opposed to being caused by forces above the surface, such as wind, NASA said in a statement.

However, the scientists are still examining the data to determine the exact cause of the signal.

“InSight’s first readings carry on the science that began with NASA’s Apollo missions,” said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the U.S.

“We’ve been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology!” Mr. Banerdt said.

The issue is that the event was so small that it has not provided any substantial data to come up with a confirm analysis.

The Martian surface is extremely quiet, allowing SEIS, InSight’s specially designed seismometer, to pick up faint rumbles.

Three other seismic signals occurred on March 14, April 10 and April 11. Detected by SEIS’ more sensitive Very Broad Band sensors, these signals were even smaller than the Sol 128 event and more ambiguous in origin.

A team of scientists will continue their study on the same to know it in deeper manner.