space.com’s Report According to the report, this earthquake broke the record of the previous earthquake on Mars. In August 2021, there was an earthquake of 4.2 magnitude. The NASA InSight team and its partners have received preliminary data from Mars, based on which it is being said that this is the largest seismic activity ever recorded on any planet except Earth! NASA’s Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen said on Twitter that the initial estimate was magnitude 5. However, he asked for patience as the teams are still analyzing the data.
Scientists say that an earthquake of magnitude 5 is normal for the Earth. There are 5 lakh earthquakes in a year like this. They rarely do any serious damage. But Mars is tectonically much calmer and magnitude 5 is pretty high there.
Insight Lander has been active on Mars since 2018. Scientists had set up the seismometer there in December 2018. Scientists say that since then they have been waiting for a big earthquake. The team of scientists also know very little about the recent earthquake. They are finding out where the earthquake occurred.
Insight Lander was landed on Mars on 26 November 2018. The seismometer sent with it has been prepared by the French space agency CNES. It explores the earthquakes on Mars and the geological activity there. In nearly 1,300 days on Mars, InSight has detected more than 1,313 earthquakes. The primary mission of the lander officially ended in the year 2020, but NASA is still continuing this mission. However, many types of problems are coming to operate it.