Mars's Quiet Air Reveals a Two-Speed Soundscape
NASA's Perseverance microphone on Mars captured sounds showing a two-speed acoustic world: low-frequency sound travels about 240 m/s, high-frequency sound about 250 m/s due to the CO2-dominated, low-pressure atmosphere. Over distance, high notes arrive earlier but are attenuated and masked; this effect lets acoustic data probe Martian temperature, wind, and turbulence, providing a new way to study the planet's atmosphere.