A global team of scientists has announced the results of an unprecedented collaboration to find the source of the largest seismic event ever recorded on Mars. A study by Oxford University ruled out a meteorite impact; instead, he suggested that the earthquake was the result of massive tectonic forces in the Martian crust.

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake that sent echoing vibrations across the planet for at least six hours was recorded by NASA’s InSight lander on May 4, 2022. Because its seismic signal was similar to previous meteorite-induced earthquakes, the team believed that this event (dubbed “S1222a”) may also have been caused by an impact, and launched an international search for a new crater.

Although Mars is smaller than Earth, it has a similar land area because it has no oceans. To explore this huge area — 144 million km² — Study leader Dr. from Oxford University. Benjamin Fernando sought assistance from the European Space Agency, the Chinese National Space Agency, the Indian Space Research Organization and the United Arab States. Emirates Space Agency.

It is believed to be the first time all missions in orbit around Mars have collaborated on a single project. Each group examined data from their Mars-orbiting satellites to look for a new crater or any signs of impact (such as the dust cloud that appeared hours after the earthquake).

After months of searching, the team announced today that no new crater was found. They concluded that this event was caused by the release of enormous tectonic forces in the interior of Mars. The results were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters It shows that the planet is much more seismically active than previously thought.

Dr Fernando said: “We believe there is still no active plate tectonics on Mars today, so this event was probably caused by the release of stress in the Martian crust. These stresses are the result of billions of years of evolution, including different parts of the planet cooling and contracting at different rates.”

“We still don’t fully understand why some parts of the planet appear to be more stressed than others, but results like this help us investigate further. One day, this information could help us understand where humans might live safely on Mars and where you might want to avoid it.”

He added: “This project represents a major international effort to help solve the mystery of S1222a, and I am incredibly grateful to all missions that contributed. I hope that this project will serve as a template for fruitful international cooperation in deep space.”

Science coordinator of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft, Dr. “This experiment shows how important it is to preserve various instruments on Mars, and we are very happy to have carried out our role in completing the multi-instrument and international approach of this research,” said Daniela Thiersch.

Dr. from China Jianjun Liu (National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) added: “We are ready and proud to collaborate with scientists from all over the world to share and apply these scientific data to learn more about Mars.” “We provided data from color images from Tianwen-1 to contribute to this effort.”

Dr. D., head of the Mars Exploration Group at NYU Abu Dhabi and author of data from the UAE’s Hope spacecraft. Dimitra Atri said: “It was a great opportunity for me to collaborate with the InSight team as well as people from other major teams. Missions dedicated to exploring Mars This is truly the golden age of Mars exploration.”

S1222a was one of the last events captured by InSight before the mission’s announcement in December 2022. The team is now moving forward by applying the knowledge gained from this research to future studies, including future missions to the moon and Saturn’s moon Titan. Source