Why Scientists were surprised to know the Speed of Sound on Mars

Sound cannot be heard everywhere, for this it is necessary to have a medium and its temperature and density vary its speed. That’s why scientists were assuming that the experience of hearing sound on the surface of Mars should be somewhat different. NASA scientists measured the speed of sound on Mars through the Supercam microphone mounted on NASA’s Perseverance Rover, the results of which surprised them.

A lot depends on the medium regarding the experience of sound. The kind of sound you hear in the air of the earth, its speed in the water changes drastically. In such a situation, scientists were hoping that when efforts are made to listen to the sound on Mars, then there will be a different experience. For this, NASA also installed a microphone with Supercam in its Perseverance Rover so that information about the speed of sound on Mars can be obtained. The results of this experiment surprised the scientists.

Strange Results

This study has shown that in the future there may be strange results of communication on Mars. The investigation suggests that trying to talk into the atmosphere of Mars can give a strange impression. The results of this study were announced at the 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Baptiste Chaide.

Density and temperature effect

According to the study, the high fluctuations in temperature on the surface of Mars demand more study on this topic. The speed of sound or sound is not a universal constant. It can change due to the density and temperature of the medium. It moves fast in rich medium. At a temperature of 20 degrees in the atmosphere of the Earth’s surface, it moves at a speed of 343 meters per second, then 1480 meters per second in water and 5100 meters per second in steel.

The atmosphere of Mars

The density of the Martian atmosphere is 0.0303 kg per cubic meter, while the density of Earth’s atmosphere is 1.2 kg per cubic meter. From this it becomes clear that the sound must have traveled differently on Mars. But just above the surface of Mars, which is called the planetary boundary layer, complicates it. During the day, the hot surface produces powerful upheavals.

Space, Mars, NASA, Perseverance Rover, Sound on Mars, Speed of sound, Earth’s atmosphere is very dense, due to which the speed of sound here is different from Mars.

Microphone of Perseverance Rover

Conventional testing equipment can still encounter interference with accuracy. The sound of Mars can be heard from the microphone of the Perseverance rover and a laser can emit sound at a precise time. At that time the voices could be heard.

So what was the speed found

It also had an advantage. Chead and his team recorded the time the laser firing took place and the time the sound reached the Supercam microphone, which was 2.1 meters above the surface. With this they could measure the speed of the voice. Researchers told in their paper that the speed of sound was recorded around 240 meters per second on the surface of Mars.

Why Scientists were surprised to know the Speed of Sound on Mars

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