An earthquake on planet Mars has been measured and recorded for what is believed to be the first time ever, NASA says.
The faint seismic signal, what scientists are labelling a "marsquake", was recorded on April 6 by NASA's InSight Lander spacecraft, and scientists are still examining the exact cause of the signal, a statement from NASA said.
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It was roughly equal to a 2.5 magnitude earthquake.
The InSight Lander touched down on Mars in November after seven months travelling through space.
"We've been waiting for months for a signal like this," Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) team lead at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) Philippe Lognonné said.
NASA says it is the first recorded trembling that appears to have come from inside Mars, as opposed to being caused by forces above the surface, such as wind.
"We are delighted about this first achievement and are eager to make similar measurements with SEIS in the years to come," Charles Yana, SEIS mission operations manager at French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales, said.
It was an exciting new discovery, NASA headquarters planetary science division director Lori Glaze said.
"Its size and longer duration fit the profile of moonquakes detected on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions."
NASA says its Apollo astronauts installed five seismometers between 1969 and 1977, which revealed seismic activity on the moon.
It is currently planning to return astronauts to the moon by 2024.
Newshub and Reuters.
