By combining a laser and a microphone, the Martian Rover can finely measure the variations of the sound propagation speed, which testify sudden changes in temperature.
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Arrived a little over a year on Mars, the American Rover Perseverance used an original method for measuring the speed variations on the surface of the red planet: it synchronized one of its two microphones With the laser shots of its Supercam instrument, which, by striking the Martian rock, produce sounds at perfectly calibrated intervals. The small recorded offsets make it possible to evaluate the influence of the disturbances of the atmosphere and to deduce from sudden changes in temperature between the soil and supercam. Baptiste Chide (National Los Alamos Lab) has just introduced the first results of these measures at 53 e Lunar and planetary science conference in Texas. The international team highlighted unexpected temperature amplitudes reaching 10 ° C per second.