First year of the Insight Mars mission, surprising scientific results

A new understanding of Mars is emerging in light of the first year of NASA’s InSight mission. Results described in a set of six papers published today, five in Nature Geoscience and one in Nature Communications, reveal a living planet that is the scene of earthquakes, dust devils and strange magnetic impulses.

In the design of NASA’s InSight lander on Mars, you can see layers of the planet’s subsurface below and dust devils in the background. Credits: IPGP/Nicolas Sarter.

Several CNRS laboratories including LMD (CNRS/ENS Paris/Ecole polytechnique/Sorbonne University), LPG (CNRS/University of Nantes/University of Angers), IRAP (CNRS/University of Toulouse/CNES), LGL-TPE (CNRS/Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1), The IMPMC (Sorbonne University/National Museum of Natural History/CNRS) and LAGRANGE (CNRS/Université Côte d’Azur/Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur) are participating with the IPGP and ISAE-SUPAERO in the analyses of the data from the InSight mission. These analyses are supported by the CNES and the National Research Agency (MAGIS project).

As a reminder, scientists from Toulouse were involved in the design and production of the proximity electronics of the French SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) seismometer, the main instrument of the mission.

Further Resources

IRAP Contact

  • Ludovic Margerin, ludovic.margerin@irap.omp.eu

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