Hear the sounds of Mars: How NASA records audio from Perseverance rover
Share
TORONTO -
For the first time ever, thanks to the Perseverance rover, humans are able to hear sounds produced on Mars.
NASA released details of the microphones installed on the rover spacecraft this week, along with a video featuring several sound clips. Longer versions of the clips are available on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover website.
Nearly five hours of wind gusts, motor sounds and rover wheels traversing the ground beneath them have been recorded. The sounds give scientists a new dimension through which to observe the Red Planet.
"It's like you're really standing there," Baptiste Chide, a planetary scientist who studies data from the microphones at L'Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in France, said on the NASA website. "Martian sounds have strong bass vibrations, so when you put on headphones, you can really feel it. I think microphones will be an important asset to future Mars and solar system science."
There are two microphones aboard the six-wheeled rover, one on the port side and one on its mast as part of the SuperCam instrument. The SuperCam studies rocks and soil by zapping them with a laser before analyzing the resulting vapour with a camera.
Those laser zaps have been caught on microphone as well, with more than 25,000 being recorded to date.
Some sounds can also help analyze changes in the planet's atmosphere. The microphone on the mast can work with the rover's wind sensors in monitoring minute shifts in the air, also known as microturbulence.
"From the weather scientist's point of view, each perspective -- detail and context -- complements one another," said Jose Rodriguez-Manfredi of the Centro de Astrobiología at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial in Madrid.
The atmosphere on Mars is much less dense than it is on Earth, which means high-pitched sounds would be difficult to hear. But scientists were apparently surprised when the buzzing of Ingenuity's rotors was picked up from 80 metres away during one of its flights. Ingenuity is a small robotic helicopter assigned to help with Perseverance's mission.
Information from the helicopter audio led researchers to eliminate two of three models they had developed about how sound propagates on Mars.
"Sound on Mars carries much farther than we thought," said Nina Lanza, a SuperCam scientist who works with the microphone data. "It shows you just how important it is to do field science."
Another thing sound may be able to help with is maintenance on Perseverance. Microphones could help engineers listen for problems the same way a mechanic may listen to a faulty car engine.
The Perseverance team is in the process of collecting a large number of recordings so that they may be better able to detect changes in the rover's systems over time.
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
Canadian pet owners are finding companionship beyond dogs and cats. Tigers, alligators, scorpions and tarantulas are among some of the exotic pets they are keeping in private homes, which pose risks to public safety and animal welfare, advocates say.
Prince William and his wife Kate thanked the public for their messages which had been sent to mark the sixth birthday of their youngest son Louis on Tuesday.
Anne Marie Cavner was the closest she'd ever been to meeting her biological father, but then life dealt her a blow. From an unexpected loss to a host of new relationships, a DNA test changed her life, and she doesn't regret a thing.
The 2024 federal budget released last week includes numerous big spending promises that have garnered headlines. But, tucked into the 416-page document are also series of smaller items, such as promising to amend the law regarding infant formula and to force banks to label government rebates, that you may have missed.
'How much plastic will you have for dinner, sir? And you, ma'am?' While that may seem like a line from a satirical skit on Saturday Night Live, research is showing it's much too close to reality.
Upset about high interest rates, growing paperwork and heavy regulatory burdens, protesting farmers have become a familiar sight across Quebec since December.
The director of a B.C. massage school has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars for discriminatory comments she made to a Muslim man who wanted to book a treatment.
People living on the Halifax Peninsula are being told to close their windows and shut off their air exchangers following a structure fire in the north end of the city Tuesday morning.
Upset about high interest rates, growing paperwork and heavy regulatory burdens, protesting farmers have become a familiar sight across Quebec since December.
As the wildfire season ramps up and a pair of evacuation alerts are now in place, one of British Columbia’s top fire officials is making a personal appeal to the public to take some simple steps that could safeguard their homes.
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press appear to show a new compound of tents being built near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip as the Israeli military continues to signal it plans an offensive on the city of Rafah.
South Korean man has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for killing 76 cats in one of the country's most gruesome cases of animal cruelty in recent years.
An Indian national has been sentenced in the United States to five years in prison in connection with a dark web drug enterprise that stretched as far as Canada, an American Department of Justice release says.
India's main opposition party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using hate speech after he called Muslims 'infiltrators' -- some of his most incendiary rhetoric about the minority faith, days after the country began its weekslong general election.
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
The 2024 federal budget released last week includes numerous big spending promises that have garnered headlines. But, tucked into the 416-page document are also series of smaller items, such as promising to amend the law regarding infant formula and to force banks to label government rebates, that you may have missed.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is raising eyebrows anew over his carbon pricing stance, refusing to say today whether or not he would keep scheduled increases in place if he becomes prime minister.
Nine months into the U.S. launch of the first drug proven to slow the advance of Alzheimer's, Eisai and Biogen's Leqembi is facing an unexpected hurdle to widespread use: an entrenched belief among some doctors that treating the memory-robbing disease is futile.
Share your story by emailing us at dotcom@bellmedia.ca with your name, general location and phone number in case we want to follow up. Your comments may be used in a CTVNews.ca story.
Whether you’re shedding pounds with the help of effective new medicines, slimming down after weight loss surgery or cutting calories and adding exercise, there will come a day when the numbers on the scale stop going down, and you hit the dreaded weight loss plateau.
Quebec's Health Department says it has received 28 reports of eye damage related to the April 8 total solar eclipse that passed over southern parts of the province.
For the first time in five months, NASA engineers have received decipherable data from Voyager 1 after crafting a creative solution to fix a communication problem aboard humanity’s most distant spacecraft in the cosmos.
Biologists, cognitive scientists and philosophers across the globe say there is a reasonable possibility the vast majority of creatures on Earth are sentient in some way.
Taylor Swift's latest album, 'The Tortured Poets Department,' which dropped on Friday, became the most-streamed album on its first day across Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music.
Victoria Beckham, the fashion designer once known best as Posh Spice, celebrated her 50th birthday this weekend in London, where she was joined by her former Spice Girls bandmates.
North Korean animators may have helped create popular television cartoons for big Western firms, including Amazon and HBO Max, despite international sanctions on North Korea, a research report has found.
Faced with falling global sales and a diving stock price, Tesla has slashed prices again on some of its electric vehicles and its 'Full Self Driving' system in an apparent effort to boost the company's earnings growth.
Tourism has come roaring back from pandemic lows, but operators say the sector has yet to reach pre-COVID levels and debt remains a hefty burden for thousands of small businesses across the country.
Federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan says he has appointed an Industrial Inquiry Commission to dig deeper into the underlying causes of B.C.'s port strike last summer.
A home in B.C.'s Okanagan that features a weathering steel shell designed to provide some protection against wildfires has been listed for sale at $3.8 million.
When Kema Ward-Hopper and her then-fiance Nicholas Hopper, both from the U.S., decided to get married in Costa Rica, they had no idea that they’d end up relocating there a few years later.
Auston Matthews scored the winner in the third period and added two assists as the Toronto Maple Leafs topped the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Monday to even their first-round playoff series 1-1.
Connor Hellebuyck made sure he did one important thing while winding down Sunday after the Winnipeg Jets beat the Colorado Avalanche 7-6 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. The favourite to win this season's Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goalie made sure his recovery included replenishing his fluids.
Honda Canada is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant near its auto manufacturing facility in Alliston, Ont., where it also plans to produce fully electric vehicles.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
The director of a B.C. massage school has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars for discriminatory comments she made to a Muslim man who wanted to book a treatment.
Tourism has come roaring back from pandemic lows, but operators say the sector has yet to reach pre-COVID levels and debt remains a hefty burden for thousands of small businesses across the country.
A recent survey shows not all Canadians are ready to make the switch to an electric vehicle as they have concerns about charging stations, cold weather and battery life.
A fundraiser meant to help Umar Zameer’s family pay their debts following a three-year prosecution has amassed nearly $150,000 in donations in the two days since the Brampton accountant was acquitted of first-degree murder in the death of a Toronto police officer.
Monday, a judge ruled a proposed class-action lawsuit can go forward despite efforts from lawyers representing the archdiocese of Edmonton and a religious order to have it struck down.
An Ottawa man is facing charges after Ontario Provincial Police used a spike belt to stop the driver of a stolen vehicle on Highway 401 in eastern Ontario.
An Ottawa developer has unveiled plans to build a 'Landmark Building', with a public space, in Ottawa's Centretown neighbourhood, across the street from the Canadian Museum of Nature.
Over the next few months, Quebec is expected to roll out home care services in five hospitals as part of a measure to allow patients to receive treatment at home while under the supervision of a medical team.
People living on the Halifax Peninsula are being told to close their windows and shut off their air exchangers following a structure fire in the north end of the city Tuesday morning.
Marion Street Eatery is set to close its doors for good after over a decade serving up steaming plates of eggs benedict, grilled cheese and brisket hash.
The Saskatchewan NDP are calling for the resignation or firing of Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill, saying he lied about apologizing for comments he made to a mother whose daughter died.
Ornge Air Ambulance says one person has critical injuries after a serious crash in the area of Fischer Hallman Road and Victoria Street South in Kitchener.
A Saskatoon mortgage broker says the federal government’s move to help Muslim Canadians get into the housing market by promoting halal mortgages is not such a radical idea — it’s helping families buy their first home without breaking their faith.
The Saskatchewan Rush are absent from the National Lacrosse League playoffs for a third straight season, a difficult end to an postseason push born out of a rocky start.
It was a sad scene at Tom Davies Square in Sudbury on Monday morning, where a man was being sentenced for a crash that killed a North Bay woman who was driving to her wedding shower.
Hundreds of drivers were charged in a recent three-day commercial motor vehicle blitz conducted by the Ontario Provincial Police and Ministry of Transportation.
Council is be urged to ensure that a plan to redevelop the Byron Gravel Pit also maintains a summer home for its long-time residents — a colony of bank swallows.
Windsor councillors have received an annual report from the Windsor Police Service. According to the report, 554 firearms were seized by officers last year — an increase from the year prior.
The director of a B.C. massage school has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars for discriminatory comments she made to a Muslim man who wanted to book a treatment.
Tourism has come roaring back from pandemic lows, but operators say the sector has yet to reach pre-COVID levels and debt remains a hefty burden for thousands of small businesses across the country.
Major crime detectives in British Columbia are investigating a suspected homicide after a body was found in a remote area southeast Kelowna over the weekend.
Nurses held a rally Wednesday at a hospital in the B.C. Interior that closed its emergency department more than a dozen times last year due to insufficient staff.
An agreement to protect a sprawling ranch in southern Alberta from development is the largest of its kind in the country, the Nature Conservancy of Canada says, and will allow the family that owns it to continue raising cattle there.
Hundreds of drivers were charged in a recent three-day commercial motor vehicle blitz conducted by the Ontario Provincial Police and Ministry of Transportation.
Newfoundlander Christian Sparkes has shot several films around his home province, but with his new psychological thriller 'The King Tide' he saw an opportunity to wander into one unique town that had eluded him over the years.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says two people were found dead and four others survived after a boat capsized off the west coast of Newfoundland.
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.