Mars probe InSight detects possible 'marsquake', NASA says, in interplanetary first

The first likely seismological tremor recorded on another planet has been detected and measured by a NASA probe on Mars. Key points: NASA's InSight probe landed on Mars late last year to investigate the planet's interior The tremor was faint, but stood out because Mars is seismically quiet in comparison to Earth Mars does not have tectonic plates like those that cause our earthquakes, but scientists suspect cooling is cracking the planet's crust The breakthrough came after InSight, the first spacecraft designed specifically to study the deep interior of a distant world, touched down on the surface of the Red Planet to begin a two-year investigation of its interior structure. Although the magnitude of this quake was too small to help scientists accomplish their mission to further understand what Mars is made of, Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure principal investigator Philippe Lognonne said it was "exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active". "We've been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology," InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt said in a statement. InSight's purpose is to use seismic monitoring and underground temperature readings to unlock mysteries about how Mars formed and, by extension, the origins of the Earth and other rocky planets of the inner solar system.