What Does Mars Sound Like? Here's What You Might Hear On The Red Planet
NASA’s Perseverance just recorded new sounds from the Red Planet and they are not just strange, but also reveal that sound behaves differently on Mars. Humans have gotten used to learning about Mars and other planets through amazing videos and photographs, and while images of Mars have taught humanity many things, it always seems as though a silent cosmic movie is being watched.
Right from the very beginning, while Perseverance was still being built, scientists knew they had to prepare the rover for its main mission - to find signs of life on Mars. However, a French-US team was convinced that sound could advance understanding of the planet. As a result, they went ahead and installed audio gear on the rover as well. They then waited patiently for the sounds of Mars to come through.
Related: NASA Hacks Perseverance And Mars Helicopter To Face The Dangerous River Delta
A new study published in Nature reveals that sound on Mars behaves very differently from how it does on Earth. The speed of sound is slower on the Red Planet so sounds tend to fade away faster. Mars is also dominated by deep silences only broken by howling winds and dust storms. Perseverance has been recording sounds since February 19, 2021, one day after it landed, with all sounds recorded between 20 Hz and 20 kHz making them within the human audible spectrum.
At first, scientists working with the Perseverance audio samples thought the microphone had somehow been damaged and was broken. That’s how silent Mars is. Listening closely to the soundscapes made public by NASA, Perseverance’s mechanical clicks and even the whirring of the Mars helicopter’s rotor can be heard. The strangest thing scientists discovered is that the speed of sound is not constant on
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