Speed Of Sound On Mars Is So Slow That Human Speech Would Sound Garbled
An analysis of the sounds captured via Perseverance rover has revealed the speed of sound on our neighbouring planet Mars. The speed of sound on the Red Planet was ascertained by an international team of researchers, as revealed at the 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
The Perseverance rover landed on Mars over a year ago. Since then, it has been capturing details of the planets through cameras, sensors, and a microphone - that allowed Earthlings to hear the first sound of an alien world.
What did Perseverance rover's microphone reveal?
Researchers then took it upon themselves to see if the sounds revealed anything useful about Mars. Baptiste Chide from the Los Alamos National Laboratory said that they measured the speed of sound by measuring "the amount of time it took for sounds emanating from laser blasts from Perseverance to return to the rover's microphone."
The scientists found that sound on Mars travels at speeds of approximately 240 metres per second. In contrast, the speed of sound in air on Earth is about?343 metres per second or a kilometre in 2.9 seconds.
Also read:?'Space Lettuce' Could Save Bone Density Of Astronauts On 3-Year-Long Mars Mission
In addition, they found that different frequencies of sound travel at different speeds on Mars. Above 400 Hz, the speed of sound increased by about 10 metres.
What does this mean? Quite simply that if two people were having a conversation on Mars, it would be extremely difficult, for different parts of speech would reach listeners at different times.
Using data about sound speed, researchers also found Mars undergoes rapid changes in temperature. This was done by assessing the speed of sound every time Perseverance fired its laser.
Also read:?NASA Curiosity Rover Spots A Strange Flower-Like Object On Mars
Did you know that mere microphone recordings could be so useful in understanding an alien planet like Mars? Let us know in the comments below.?For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.
References
Yirka, B. (2022b, March 23). Analysis of sounds captured by Perseverance rover reveals speed of sound on the Red Planet. Phys.Org.?
