How NASA recorded the eerie Martian wind, without a microphone

Cold winds constantly blow across the wide Martian plains of Elysium Planitia, and NASA unexpectedly recorded the sound of these extraterrestrial gusts. 

Although NASA sent the InSight lander to Mars to study Mars’ earthquakes and geology, the robot’s scientists discovered that one of InSight’s instruments picked up audio of wind gusting against the machine’s metal exterior, and they released the sounds on Friday.

“It’s what it’s like to be there,” Don Banfield, an InSight scientist, said in an interview.

Beginning at the 1:10 mark in the video below, you can hear the Martian wind.

The specific instrument that picked up the sound of wind blowing against the lander is an air pressure sensor, more formally called the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem. It’s a weather-monitoring device. It’s not a microphone. But it can act like one.  Read more…

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