InSight Captures Sound of a Meteoroid Striking Mars by NASA published on 2022-09-16T19:06:36Z NASA’s InSight lander brought a seismometer to the Red Planet to study “marsquakes.” On Sept, 5, 2021, the seismometer detected a meteoroid impacting the planet’s surface, creating several craters in the process. It was the first time the sound of a meteoroid impact was captured occurring on another planet, and it might not be what you expect. In the audio, you hear three “bloops” representing distinct moments of the impact: the meteoroid entering Mars’ atmosphere, exploding into pieces, and striking the ground. The peculiar sound is caused by an atmospheric effect that’s also been observed in deserts on Earth, where lower-pitched sounds arrive before high-pitched sounds. Credit: CNES/IPGP Genre Science