Pre-reading questions:
- Do you know anything about Mars? Elaborate your answer.
- Do you consider it as the second Earth? Why or why not?
Vocabulary:
- bizarre /bih-ZAHR/
- observe /uhb-ZURV/
- intention /in-TEN-shuhn/
- surface /SUR-fis/
- landscape /LAND-skeyp/
[adjective] very strange and unusual
Everyone stared at the student who wore a bizarre outfit to school.
[verb] to watch carefully the way something happens or the way someone does something
Drivers must observe the traffic rules.
[noun] something that you want and plan to do
Tom had no intention of helping Jessica.
[noun] the outer or top part or layer of something
Three-fourths of the earth’s surface is water.
[noun] a large area of countryside, especially in relation to its appearance
We enjoyed the trip to the countryside except when we drove through a rocky landscape.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission recorded bizarre sounds on Mars. The mission landed on November 2018 with its stationary probe’s seismometer to observe the quakes on the red planet. According to the researchers, the seismometer has detected more than 100 events, 21 of them are possible quakes and the sound of the wind. Seismic movements can create a picture of the internal part of a planet and how it was structured, which is one of the intentions of this mission.
Mars’ surface is dissimilar from Earth’s because of its tectonic plates that do not produce quakes, rather caused by cooling and contraction, which form chasms on its crust. InSight’s arm makes friction and produces alluring sounds like whistling and “dinks and donks”, a nightfall sound due to heat loss. Constantinos Charalambous, an InSight science team member at Imperial College London said that it has been exciting to hear the first vibrations from the lander. “You’re imagining what’s really happening on Mars as InSight sits on the open landscape,” Charalambous added.
Mars’ surface is dissimilar from Earth’s because of its tectonic plates that do not produce quakes, rather caused by cooling and contraction, which form chasms on its crust. InSight’s arm makes friction and produces alluring sounds like whistling and “dinks and donks”, a nightfall sound due to heat loss. Constantinos Charalambous, an InSight science team member at Imperial College London said that it has been exciting to hear the first vibrations from the lander. “You’re imagining what’s really happening on Mars as InSight sits on the open landscape,” Charalambous added.
- What is the mission all about?
- What did NASA’s InSight record on Mars?
- How many events did the seismometer detect?
- What is the difference between the surface of Mars and Earth?
- In the article, what can InSight’s arm make?
- Do you think NASA’s discovery about the strange sounds will determine the possibility of life on Mars? Why or why not?
- What are your thoughts on NASA’s new discovery? Do you find it unusual? Why or why not?
- In your own opinion, what do you think is the purpose of scientific discoveries?
- How important is learning about space? Explain your answer.
- Would you like to travel into space? Why or why not?