One of the simplest pleasures in life is listening to the wind whisper through the trees on a warm spring day.
On Earth, that is. It’s harder to accomplish that on Mars, since no day is particularly warm and there are no trees. However, thanks to a new video from the Jet Propulsion Lab and the InSight lander, you can hear what Martian wind sounds like.
InSight set down on Mars on November 26. On board the lander is a highly sensitive seismometer meant to study marsquakes.
On December 1 the seismometer recorded vibrations: vibrations caused by Martian wind. The wind was blowing across the lander’s solar panels, causing small movements.
The recording of these vibrations is in the audible range of human hearing. The sounds are very low pitch and best heard with headphones and subwoofers.
The audio then shifts up two octaves. At an increased pitch, it is audible on laptops and mobile devices.
A second instrument, the air pressure sensor, also recorded the sounds of the winds. APSS data sped up by a factor of 100, shifting it up in frequency 100X. Eventually, mission engineers will move the seismometer off the lander and onto the ground in front of it. There it will gather vibrations coming from deep within the planet to teach us about the interior of Mars.
Listen to this extraordinary interplanetary weather event here.
Learn more about the red planet in our Mission Mars exhibit. There you can explore what the planet itself is like, touch a real Mars meteorite and discover how NASA is working to journey to Mars.
We also wrote more about the InSight lander in a blog post here.
