The scientists came to the conclusion after calculating the speed of sound on Mars, which dates back to February 19, 2021, the day after the landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on the planet. They discovered that sound travels 100 meters per second slower on Mars compared to Earth. In addition, the researchers found that there are two speeds of sound on Mars – one for high-frequency sounds and one for low-volume sounds. On Earth, sounds typically travel at 767 mph (343 meters per second). But on Mars, low-frequency sounds travel at about 537 mph (240 meters per second), while higher-intensity sounds travel at 559 mph (250 meters per second), NASA said. “This would make it difficult for two people just five meters apart to talk,” according to a press release on the findings. This strange sound environment is due to the incredibly low atmospheric surface pressure on Mars, which is 170 times lower than the pressure on Earth, according to a study published in Nature on Friday. For example, if a high-frequency sound travels 213 feet on Earth, it will travel only 26 feet on Mars. While the sounds on Mars are heard by human ears, they are incredibly soft. “At one point, we thought the microphone was broken, it was so quiet,” said Sylvestre Maurice, an astrophysicist at the University of Toulouse in France and lead author of the study, according to NASA. “Apart from the wind, natural sound sources are rare,” the press release said. But NASA scientists believe that Mars may become more noisy in the autumn months, when there is a higher atmospheric pressure. “We are entering a time of high pressure,” Baptiste Chide, co-author of the study, told the press release. “Maybe the acoustic environment on Mars is less quiet than it was when we landed.”
