Mars' Rotation Speed Increasing: Lander Data Unveils Red Planet's Shortening Days

Data from NASA's InSight Mars lander suggests that the Red Planet is spinning faster every year. As Mars' rotation accelerates every year, it leads to the shortening of days on the Red Planet.

The research, recently published in the journal Nature, claims that Mars' rotation on its axis is accelerating by about 4 milliarcseconds each year. Scientists are unsure why is this happening, but they have some theories.

"I¡¯ve been involved in efforts to get a geophysical station like InSight onto Mars for a long time, and results like this make all those decades of work worth it," said study co-author Bruce Banerdt.

NASA

What's causing Mars' rotation to change?

The study claims that facts like ice accumulating on Mars' polar caps or post-glacial rebound (wherein landmasses rise after being buried by ice) could be causing this acceleration of the planet's spin.

According to NASA scientists, this shift may be compared to an ice skater spinning with their arms stretched out and pulling their arms in. To understand the process, scientists assessed data from InSight's first 900 Martian days.

NASA

Also read: Puzzling Protrusions On Mars Could Have Been Created By An Alien Spaceship Crash

"What we¡¯re looking for are variations that are just a few tens of centimeters over the course of a Martian year. It takes a very long time and a lot of data to accumulate before we can even see these variations," said the study's lead author Sebastien Le Maistre from the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

"We have spent a lot of time and energy preparing for the experiment and anticipating these discoveries. But despite this, we were still surprised along the way ¨C and it¡¯s not over, since RISE still has a lot to reveal about Mars."

Unsplash

Also read: New Picture Clicked By Perseverance Rover Shows Donut-Shaped Rock On Mars

Scientists believe this that this "slow acceleration" could be a result of a "long-term trend" in the internal dynamics of Mars or in its ice caps or atmosphere.

What do you think about this changing nature of Martian rotation? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.