On Mars, NASA's InSight lander records biggest 4.2 magnitude quake

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the InSight lander recorded "one of the biggest and most distant marsquakes". According to the US space agency, they detected one long-lasting quake with a magnitude of 4.2 that shook the ground for more than a half-hour. This is the third time in a row that the Insight lander has heard such rumblings in past one month. 

Earlier, InSight had detected 2 quakes of magnitudes 4.2 and 4.1 on August 25. However, the US space agency said the recent quake was five times stronger than previous records. A 3.7 magnitude quake was recorded in 2019. The InSight lander was nearly 8,500 kilometers away when the 4.2 magnitude quake occurred, which also makes this event the first to capture such a big quake from the longest distance.

Nasa lander records biggest 4.2 magnitude quake on Mars

NASA scientists are aiming to find out the epicentre of the quake, which is believed to be too far from the InSight lander. According to researchers, the epicentre of the quake this time must also have been Cerberus Fossae, where the machine had detected previous quakes. Cerberus Fossae is located around 1609 kilometres away from the place where lava is suspected to have flowed in the last few million years. The seismometer usually detects quakes on Mars at night, when winds are low and the planet cools off, but this time it was not recorded during the night.

According to an official statement issued by NASA, it said, "Despite their differences, the  August 2 quakes do have something in common other than being big: Both occurred during the day, the windiest and, to a seismometer, noisiest time on Mars".

The InSight lander was specially designed to track the activity of the Red Planet, which was formed about four million years ago. The InSight Seismometer is the first of its kind that gives brief details of the inner space of Mars. It was deployed in 2018.

(Image: NASA)