Data analysis from NASA’s InSight Lander has revealed an interesting discovery: Mars is spinning faster! The lander worked hard for four years before its extended mission ended in December 2022 due to power depletion. The thorough findings were revealed in a recent Nature journal, giving what scientists consider to be the most meticulous study of Mars’ rotational behavior yet acquired.
The important discovery suggests that Mars’ axial rotation is increasing at a rate of about 4 milliarcseconds each year. Each year, this minor but considerable acceleration results in a fractional shortening of a millisecond in the Martian day.
The notable study included inputs from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory experts. Although the underlying cause of the Red Planet’s rotational acceleration remains unknown, the scientists present numerous plausible theories.
One theory suggests that the steady building of ice on Mars’ polar caps could be a spark. The scientists explain that changes in a planet’s mass might cause an acceleration effect similar to a figure skater spinning faster when they retract their outstretched arms.
“It’s really cool to be able to get this latest measurement – and so precisely,” said Bruce Banerdt, lead investigator of InSight at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “I’ve been involved in efforts to get a geophysical station like InSight onto Mars for a long time, and results like this make all those decades of work worthwhile,” said NASA in a statement posted on the agency’s website.
The data that underpins this discovery was meticulously collected by a radio transponder aboard the InSight Lander, in collaboration with a collection of antennas known as the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment, or RISE.
The RISE mission is the most recent in a series of missions to Mars, succeeding earlier missions such as the twin Viking landers of the 1970s and the Pathfinder mission in the 1990s. RISE’s significantly improved capabilities have enabled it to capture data with five times the accuracy of the Viking landers’ equipment.
