Scientists detect first ‘Marsquake’

THE first ‘Marsquake’ has been detected by the Nasa lander exploring the planet.

The faint rumble is the first seismic event recorded on the surface of any planet other than Earth.

It was picked up by British-made sensors on the InSight probe, which touched down on the Red Planet five months ago on a mission to shed light on how the solar system’s rocky planets formed.

Professor Tom Pike, of Imperial College London, who leads the mission’s team of British scientists, said: ‘This is what we were all waiting for – the first quivering of the planet picked up by our sensors.

‘It looks like Mars, although very much quieter than Earth, is giving us seismic signals we are able to clearly detect.’

InSight’s sensors were developed by Imperial College, Oxford University and the RAL Space laboratory in Didcot, Oxfordshire, with £4million funding from the UK Space Agency. In December it captured the first sounds from Mars – a low rumble caused by the wind.