Sounds have two different speeds on Mars: Scientists
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Paris: Scientists claimed on Friday that the planet Mars has two different speeds for sounds, resulting in delayed healing. The first-ever audio records from the red planet acquired by scientists suggest that it is a quiet place with occasional winds, Agence France-Presse reported.
NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed on the planet in February last year, gave the initial insights to researchers, which they published in the journal Nature. They studied five hours of sounds recorded by the rover from the planet.
Sylvestre Maurice, the principal author of the published study, said that the audio suggests previously unknown turbulence on Mars. He told AFP that they listened to the Ingenuity helicopter, another craft partnering the Perseverance on the planet, as well as the rover's own sound as it laser zapped rocks to study their chemical composition.
The new findings have confirmed the theory that the speed of sound is slower on Mars, 240 m/s, while the same is 340 m/s on Earth. This is because Mars's atmosphere has 95 per cent carbon dioxide and is 100 times thinner than that of Earth's, making sounds 20 decibels weaker.
But the curious discovery, of course, is the two speeds for different sounds; one for high pitched and the other for low pitched. This was learnt after they found speed differences in the high pitched sound of laser zap and low pitched helicopter rotor's whir sound.
The scientists suggest that in a supposed situation where two people having a conversation on Mars will face difficulties hearing each other.
The scientists first thought something went wrong with the mission when they did not hear any sounds at first since there were two failed missions in 1999 and 2008. Later the rover sent its own sounds when it worked on rocks. Author Maurice stated that attaching a microphone to the rover was a gamble but a success.
Another scientist, Thierry Fouchet of the Paris Observatory, said that listening to the turbulence, the vertical winds known as convection plumes, allows researchers to learn about the planet's weather patterns and climate and help predict them.