SEIS tagged posts

Are subterranean lifeforms viable on Mars? A new interpretation of Martian seismic data by scientists Ikuo Katayama of Hiroshima University and Yuya Akamatsu of Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics suggests the presence of water below the surface of Mars. “If liquid water exists on Mars,” Katayama says, “the presence of microbial activity” is possible.

This analysis is based on seismic data from SEIS (Seismic Experiment for the Interior Structure), deployed from NASA’s InSight lander that landed on Mars in 2018...

New papers summarize the lander’s findings above and below the surface of the Red Planet. A new understanding of Mars is beginning to emerge, thanks to the first year of NASA’s InSight lander mission. Findings described in a set of six papers published today reveal a planet alive with quakes, dust devils and strange magnetic pulses.

Five of the papers were published in Nature Geoscience. An additional paper in Nature Communications details the InSight spacecraft’s landing site, a shallow crater nicknamed “Homestead hollow” in a region called Elysium Planitia.

InSight is the first mission dedicate...

Scientists said Tuesday they might have detected the first known seismic tremor on Mars in a discovery that could shed light on the ancient origins of Earth’s neighbour. A dome-shaped probe known as SEIS landed on the surface of Mars in December after hitching a ride on NASA’s InSight spacecraft. Its instruments measure surface vibrations caused by weather but are also capable of detecting movement from deep within the planet—so called “marsquakes”—or those caused by meteorite impacts.

The French space agency Cnes, which operates SEIS, said it had detected “a weak but distinct seismic signal” from the probe...