Nasa said on April 1 local time that using the Mars sound recorded by NASA's "Perseverance" rover, the new study found that the sound on Mars spreads slower than on Earth, and the sound only travels a short distance.
On Earth, sound usually travels at a speed of 343 m/s. But on Mars, sound travels more slowly than on Earth and varies with changes in pitch or frequency, with bass spreading at a rate of about 240 m/s and treble spreading at about 250 m/s.
Perseverance
The study, published April 1 in the journal Nature, said most of the sound in the study was recorded using a microphone on the Perseverance. The sounds recorded on perseverance included the sound of rovers and the sound of breezes on Mars. The Blades of the Witty Mars helicopter rotate at a rate of 2500 rpm to produce an 84-hertz bass. Lasers hitting rocks produce sparks that create high-frequency noise of more than 2,000 hertz.
Sylvestre Maurice, an astrophysicist at the University of Toulouse in France and the study's first author, said many discoveries are expected to be made using the atmosphere as a sound source and communication medium. This is a new approach that has never been used before in Mars research.
The position of the two microphones on the Perseverance
Scientists are the first to analyze the acoustics on the Red Planet, revealing how quickly sound travels through Mars' thin atmosphere, which is mainly made up of carbon dioxide, using recordings to detect subtle changes in Mars' atmospheric pressure and measuring rover health, just as people might notice the noise of a car while driving.
The variable speed of sound on Mars is influenced by a thin, cold atmosphere of carbon dioxide. The Martian atmosphere is only 1% denser than Earth's atmosphere, and another effect of this thin atmosphere is that sound only travels very short distances, while higher pitches can barely propagate. On Mars, the sound trembles at 8 meters, and at this distance, the treble disappears completely, while the sound on Earth decreases after about 65 meters.
Tact
Morris said one of the most notable features of these recordings recorded by perseverance's microphones is that Mars is silent.
This is also the result of the thinning atmosphere of Mars. Due to the low air pressure, Mars is very quiet. But the air pressure on Mars changes with the seasons. NASA says this means that mars could become noisier in the upcoming fall and provide more insights into the air and weather. NASA also said that recordings from the microphones on perseverance also revealed previously observed changes in pressure from turbulent Martian atmospheres, and short-lived gusts on Mars were also measured for the first time.