The largest earthquake ever detected on Mars has been detected by NASA's InSight probe.
A magnitude 5 earthquake has been recorded on Mars by the InSight spacecraft, the largest ever observed on an alien planet. The last earthquakes of magnitude 4.1 and 4.2 were recorded in August and September 2021, respectively. The current record-breaking quake was detected by InSight on 4 May, the 1222nd Martian day on Mars.
“Seismic waves from all directions and distances around Insight can be used to scan the planet's crust and mantle, in a similar way to the way X-rays are used in medical tomography" - wrote the ELTE Institute for Geophysics and Space Research. The probe has detected more than 1300 quakes since it landed at the end of 2018.
Although the space probe was originally planned for two years, as things went well, the space agency extended the mission for another two years. The mission has had considerable success, including unravel the anatomy of Mars, it turns out, for example, that the red planet is made of the same materials as Earth, but has a very different structure.
The Insight is not in very good shape, as NASA announced in February that the device would be reaches the critical state when it will no longer be able to do its job and the batteries will run down completely by the end of the year. Dust accumulated on the structure's solar panels will presumably cause the rover to shut down permanently.
