STORY – The French seismometer taken away by NASA has revolutionized our knowledge of the interior of the red planet.
Since November 2018, the InSight probe has been taking the pulse of the red planet. Shortly before Christmas, NASA announced that it could no longer communicate with the robot and thus marked the end of its mission. Still shortly before dying, scientists published a press release announcing the recording of the most powerful earthquake observed on the surface of the red planet on May 4, with a magnitude of 4.7, when the previous record was measured at 4.2 in August 2021. “It’s always complicated to see such an adventure come to an end, but this stoppage is not comparable with the loss of a mission”comments Philippe Lognonné, seismologist at the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP) and at the University of Paris Cité, considered to be the father of SEIS, the French seismometer which equips the probe. “There is of course a part of regrets…Secretly, we would have liked InSight to extend its stay, a bit like the Opportunity rover (which worked for fourteen years, Editor’s note). Especially when…
This article is for subscribers only. You have 90% left to discover.
Pushing back the limits of science is also freedom.
Keep reading your article for €0.99 for the first month
Already subscribed? Login