Marsquakes from meteoroids are more profound than previously believed, as revealed by NASA’s InSight

NASA

Meteoroids striking Mars produce seismic signals that can reach deeper into the planet than previously known.
Researchers have in the past taken images of new impact craters and found seismic data that matches the date and location of the craters’ formation.
“We’ve finally arrived in the big data era of planetary science.” More About InSight JPL managed InSight for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
A number of European partners, including France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), supported the InSight mission.
A division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

POSITIVE

Scientists used artificial intelligence (AI) to find a new crater created by an impact that rocked material as deep as the Red Planet’s mantle.

Deeper than previously thought, seismic signals from meteoroids striking Mars can be detected. Two recent studies that compared impact craters discovered by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) with earthquake data gathered by the agency’s InSight lander have found that.

The document was released on Monday, February. 3. In Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), discuss how InSight, which NASA retired in 2022 following a successful extended mission, continues to teach scientists. By installing the first seismometer on Mars, InSight was able to detect over 1,300 earthquakes, which are caused by both space rocks striking the surface and shaking deep within the planet due to rocks cracking under pressure and heat.

Scientists can gain insight into the interior of Mars and a better understanding of how all rocky worlds, including Earth and its Moon, form by tracking the changes in seismic waves from those quakes as they pass through the planet’s crust, mantle, and core.

In the past, when scientists have photographed new impact craters, they have discovered seismic data that corresponds to the craters’ formation date and location. However, the two new studies mark the first time that a new impact has been linked to shaking found in Cerberus Fossae, a region of Mars that is 1,019 miles (1,640 kilometers) from InSight and particularly prone to earthquakes.

The impact crater is 71 feet (21 point 5 meters) in diameter and is located far away from InSight than scientists had anticipated given the seismic energy of the earthquake. Because of special characteristics of the Martian crust, which are believed to reduce seismic waves from impacts, scientists were able to determine that the waves from the Cerberus Fossae impact traveled through the planet’s mantle more directly.

To explain how impact-generated seismic signals can travel that far, the InSight team will now need to reevaluate their models of the composition and structure of Mars’ interior.

A member of the InSight team from Imperial College London, Constantinos Charalambous, stated, “We used to think the energy detected from the vast majority of seismic events was stuck traveling within the Martian crust.”. With the help of this discovery, earthquakes can now travel farther and faster through the mantle, enabling them to strike farther-flung parts of the planet. “.”.

Finding Mars Craters Using MRO.

The Cerberus Fossae crater was found in large part thanks to a machine learning algorithm created at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to identify meteoroid impacts on Mars. Within a few hours, the artificial intelligence tool can identify the blast zones surrounding craters by sorting through tens of thousands of black-and-white photos taken by MRO’s Context Camera. Using MRO’s High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the tool chooses candidate images for analysis by scientists skilled at identifying which subtle colorations on Mars merit more in-depth imaging.

“If done by hand, this would take years of work,” stated Valentin Bickel, a member of the InSight team from the University of Bern in Switzerland. In a few days, we reduced the number of photos from tens of thousands to a small number with this tool. Although it is extremely quick, it is not quite as good as a human. “”.

In an attempt to locate craters that formed during the seismometer’s recording, Bickel and his team looked for craters within about 1,864 miles (3,000 kilometers) of InSight’s location. Through a comparison of Context Camera before-and-after photos taken over a period of time, they discovered 123 new craters to compare with InSight’s data; 49 of those might have been associated with earthquakes identified by the lander’s seismometer. Charalambous and other seismologists identified the 71-foot Cerberus Fossae impact crater by further filtering that pool.

Understanding More, Quickly.

Scientists are getting better at differentiating signals from meteoroid strikes from those coming from inside the planet as they examine InSight’s data more and more. They will be better able to distinguish between these signals thanks to the impact discovered in Cerberus Fossae.

“This indicates that some of the activity does not originate there and could actually be from impacts instead,” Charalambous explained. “We thought Cerberus Fossae produced a lot of high-frequency seismic signals associated with internally generated quakes.

The results also demonstrate how scientists are using AI to enhance planetary science by better utilizing all of the data collected by European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA missions. Apart from researching Martian craters, Bickel has employed artificial intelligence (AI) to scan steep slopes for landslides, dust devils, and seasonal dark features known as recurring slope linae or slope streaks. Additionally, landslides and craters on Earth’s moon have been located using AI tools.

“The challenge is to process and analyze the data because we have so many images from the Moon and Mars now,” Bickel stated. “The big data era of planetary science has finally arrived. “.”.

Learn More About InSight.

JPL oversaw InSight on behalf of the Science Mission Directorate of the agency. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, oversaw the agency’s Discovery Program, which included InSight. Denver’s Lockheed Martin Space constructed the InSight spacecraft, including its lander and cruise stage, and assisted with spacecraft operations for the mission.

The InSight mission was supported by several European partners, such as the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). NASA received the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument from CNES, with the institute de Physique du Globe de Paris serving as the principal investigator. IPGP, Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland, and JPL all made significant contributions to SEIS. The Polish Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika made major contributions to the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, which was supplied by DLR. The temperature and wind sensors were provided by the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) in Spain.

JPL, a part of Caltech in Pasadena, California, oversees NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project. HiRISE was developed by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado, and is run by the University of Arizona in Tucson. San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems constructed and runs the Context Camera.

To learn more about Insight, go to:.

http://science.nasa.gov/mission/insight/.

Go here to learn more about MRO.

(https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter/).

Media contacts for news.

Good for Andrew.

Laboratory for Jet Propulsion, Pasadena, California.

Call 818-393-2433.

Andrew. C. good@jpl . nasa . gov.

Molly Wasser/Karlene Fox.

NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Call 202-358-1600.

Karen. @nasa.gov/molly c . fox. l. Nasa . gov/wasser.

2025-10-13.

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