On Mars, sound has two speeds and it slows down faster than Earth

It may have been quiet and quiet, but the Earthlings were able to make Mars speak. In a study published in the journal Natural (In English), On Friday, April 1, the researchers describe what the records captured by Perseverance Rover show.

This is the end of a deafening silence! # Super Game Unveils the secret of Mars’ peace through a French microphone placed on an instrument in the rover NASAPersevere.IRAP_France CNRS CNRS_Toulouse ISAE_official @ UT3PaulSabatier

– CNES (CNES) April 1, 2022

Rarely landed, in February 2021, a NASA robot sent us the first audio captured on Mars by microphone, at frequencies audible to the human ear, making previous missions unsuccessful. Examining these records revealed the truth The speed of sound on Mars is lower than on Earth: 240 m / s, compared to 340 m / s on our planet., Summarizes the CNRS in a press release. It is not unusual for the composition of the Martian atmosphere (which is 96% carbon dioxide, while this fraction is only 0.004% on Earth) and its very low pressure (170 times higher than Earth) to be slow. . But the most amazing thing is that there are actually two speeds of sound on Mars, one for high and the other for low. “CNRS specifies.

“On Earth, the sounds of the orchestra will rise and fall at the same speed. Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Mars.”Sylvestre Maurice, an astrophysicist at the University of Toulouse in Europe (astronomical and astronomical research institute) explains.

The sound environment of Mars offers other peculiarities. “Noise reduction is stronger on Mars than on Earth, especially three times faster and is lost even at short distances.”, Also writes CNRS. It will “Difficult conversation between two people separated by only five meters”.

The “Science Betting”, Matching space travel with a microphone has been successful in the view of the scientist in charge of co-operating with the rover’s supercam instrument, where the microphone designed by Isa-Zubero is installed in Toulouse. Although this new instrument is in its infancy, constant listening to Mars will help us better understand its atmosphere, which in the past resembled the Earth and favored the appearance of life. Other atmospheres, such as Venus or Titan, the moon of Saturn, may be subject to sound probes with a similar instrument.