An international team of scientists, led by French researcher Paul Sabatier and including scientists from France's CNRS and the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, has just published an analysis of these sounds in the journal
One of the first images of Mars captured by Perseverance
Image: Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
In 2021, NASA revealed the very first sound recorded by its Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars. One year later, painstaking analysis of all these recordings have allowed researchers to determine the speed of sound on Mars. Unlike on Earth, there are two speeds of sound on Mars, one for low frequencies and one for high-pitched sounds.
Since arriving on Mars in February 2021, Perseverance has managed to capture more than five hours of recordings of the red planet's sound environment. One sound that can be clearly distinguished is that of the wind. One of the major observations made from listening to the recordings is that activity on Mars is very quiet: apart from this wind, it is difficult to identify other natural sound sources.