More than a year has passed since the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars. During this time, he transmitted to Earth a lot of data and images, and also took several soil samples. Now it became known that the rover helped scientists in the study of the process of sound propagation on the Red Planet. The results of this week’s work were published in the journal Nature.
Image Source: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Perseverance’s design includes several microphones that have been used to capture various sounds, including the noise of strong winds and the hum of the miniature Ingenuity helicopter that arrived on Mars with the rover. Analysis of these recordings allowed scientists to understand that sound travels differently on Mars and on Earth.
According to scientists, the rarefied atmosphere of Mars, consisting of carbon dioxide, contributes to the slower propagation of sound. It is noted that the speed of sound propagation is affected by its height. On Earth, the speed of sound is about 1234 km/h, while on Mars, low sounds travel at about 864 km/h and high sounds at about 900 km/h. It is also noted that due to the rarefied atmosphere, sounds on Mars are carried over shorter distances. If on Earth the sound loses strength at a distance of about 65 meters, then on Mars this happens already after 4 meters.
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