By: Derek Chang

Scientists have found that noises on Earth sound and travel differently than on Mars. In addition, Mars has more than one sound speed!

Sounds on Mars are much harder to hear than sounds on Earth. “In fact, someone speaking next to you on Mars would sound as quiet as if they were talking 60 meters away,” an article in Science News for Students states.

There is also more than one sound speed on Mars, unlike Earth, which only has one. High-pitched sounds will dissipate faster than low-pitched ones. However, the low-pitched sounds travel slower. As the article states, “Within the range of human hearing, high-pitched sounds travel at about 250 meters per second. Low-pitched sounds travel slower — about 240 meters per second.”

This is all because Mars’ atmosphere is different from Earth’s. Mars’ atmosphere is mostly made of carbon dioxide and has low pressure, while Earth’s atmosphere is mostly made of nitrogen and has high pressure.

Sounds are actually an energy in the molecules of air or water. Once there is energy in the air, the air will move the energy around. How fast this happens depends on the substances in the air and the air pressure. Andy Piacsek, a physicist at Central Washington University, said, “This doesn’t happen on Earth because the pressure of our atmosphere is so much higher than on Mars. Plus, Earth’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen. Under those conditions, the effect is about the same for high and low pitches. So on Earth, all sounds generally travel at about 343 meters per second.”

This discovery was made possible by NASA’s perseverance rover, which has been exploring Mars since February of 2021. Baptiste Chide, a scholar, analyzed the sound recordings of the rover and made this big discovery. Without the rover, this discovery wouldn’t have been made possible.