Mars doesn't have tectonic plates like Earth, but it does have areas of volcanic activity that can cause rumblings, and one way to better understand Mars' mantle and core is to examine seismic activity.

Mars doesn't have tectonic plates like Earth, but it does have areas of volcanic activity that can cause rumblings, and one way to better understand Mars' mantle and core is to examine seismic activity. In March, NASA's InSight lander detected two strong, clear earthquakes originating from a location on Mars called Cerberus Fossae -- a site that had been hit earlier in the mission. There were two strong earthquakes. The and magnitudes of these earthquakes were 3.3 and 3.1 respectively; the previous earthquakes were 3.6 and 3.5 respectively.

InSight has recorded more than 1,300 earthquakes to date, but nothing like the magnitude 5 earthquake that occurred on May 4, 2022. That's a medium-sized earthquake on Earth, and they happen five times a day, but it's a scale researchers only hope to get on this mission to Mars.

This earthquake map shows the largest earthquake ever detected on another planet. The earthquake, estimated to be a magnitude 5, was discovered by NASA's InSight lander on May 4, 2022, the mission's 1,222nd Mars day, or solar day. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This will probably be the last time you read this for a few months. As InSight's location on Mars enters winter, more dust in the air reduces the amount of sunlight available. On May 7, 2022, the lander's available energy fell just below the limit that triggered the safety mode , in which the spacecraft suspended all but the most basic functions. This reaction is intended to protect the lander and may occur again as available power slowly decreases.

This image shows InSight's dome wind and heat shield that covers its seismometer , called the Seismic Experiment with Internal Structure, or SEIS