How sound moves on Mars

Understanding acoustic propagation within the Martian environment helps scientists understand the planet and will inform future missions. #ASA_ASJ2025 #ASA189

2025-12-04

(Press-News.org) HONOLULU, Dec. 4, 2025 — Acoustic signals have been important markers during NASA’s Mars missions. Measurements of sound can provide information both about Mars itself — such as turbulence in its atmosphere, changes in its temperature, and its surface conditions — and about the movement of the Mars rovers.

Using these sound measurements to the best extent possible requires an accurate understanding of how sound propagates on Mars. Charlie Zheng, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Utah State University, and his doctoral student Hayden Baird, who is partially sponsored by the Utah Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowship, will present their work simulating sound propagation on Mars Thursday, Dec. 4, at 8:25 a.m. HST as part of the Sixth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and Acoustical Society of Japan, running Dec. 1-5 in in Honolulu, Hawaii.

“We expect that the study will provide deeper insight into weather and terrain effects on acoustic propagation in environments that are not easily measured,” said Zheng. “The Martian environment is obviously one of them.”

Baird and Zheng’s work uses NASA’s measurements of the atmospheric conditions and terrain on Mars, most of which have been previously modeled at meter-scale resolutions. They also had access to decades of data about the red planet’s atmospheric composition and properties, as well as seismic studies that measure the ground porosity — all factors that play into how sound propagates.

“The setup of the simulation model used in this study relies heavily on previous results from multiple scientific disciplines,” said Baird.

Focusing on the Jezero crater, the 2021 landing and exploration site of NASA’s Perseverance rover and its attached Ingenuity helicopter, the researchers simulated how sound moves through and scatters off the region’s complex terrains, whether it comes from a moving or stationary source. This will help them understand how other atmospheres compare to our own.

The researchers hope their model will help identify signals and patterns that indicate specific Martian atmospheric events. In the longer term, it may even help with sensor designs for future missions to other planets or moons to study atmospheric conditions.

“This study is a beginning to dive into many potential areas of planetary research,” said Zheng.

###

Main Meeting Website: https://acousticalsociety.org/honolulu-2025/

Technical Program: https://eppro02.ativ.me/web/planner.php?id=ASAASJ25

ASA PRESS ROOM

In the coming weeks, ASA’s Press Room will be updated with newsworthy stories and the press conference schedule at https://acoustics.org/asa-press-room/.

LAY LANGUAGE PAPERS

ASA will also share dozens of lay language papers about topics covered at the conference. Lay language papers are summaries (300-500 words) of presentations written by scientists for a general audience. They will be accompanied by photos, audio, and video. Learn more at https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/.

PRESS REGISTRATION

ASA will grant free registration to credentialed and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend the meeting and/or press conferences, contact AIP Media Services at media@aip.org. For urgent requests, AIP staff can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.

ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

The Acoustical Society of America is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.

ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN

ASJ publishes a monthly journal in Japanese, the Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, as well as a bimonthly journal in English, Acoustical Science and Technology, which is available online at no cost https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/ast. These journals include technical papers and review papers. Special issues are occasionally organized and published. The Society also publishes textbooks and reference books to promote acoustics associated with various topics. See https://acoustics.jp/en/.

###

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Increasing plant diversity in agricultural grasslands boosts yields, reducing reliance on fertilizer

2025-12-04

Higher plant diversity in agricultural grasslands increases yields with lower inputs of nitrogen fertiliser. That is the headline finding of a landmark, international study led by Trinity College Dublin that paints a promising picture for more sustainable agriculture. And in further good news, the research shows that under warmer temperatures, the yield benefits of more diverse grasslands further increase. This highlights the climate adaptation potential of multispecies mixtures in an era where the global climate crisis is driving rising temperatures in many countries. The research, published today in leading ...

Scientists uncover a new role for DNA loops in repairing genetic damage

2025-12-04

When DNA breaks, cells must repair it accurately to prevent harmful mutations. Researchers have discovered that during a key repair process called homologous recombination, the cell uses loops in its DNA structure to speed up the search for an intact copy of the damaged region. These loops act like shortcuts, allowing the repair machinery to scan along the chromosome in a directed way rather than randomly. This finding, published today in Science, reveals an unexpected function for chromatin loops—not just in organizing the genome, but also in helping maintain its integrity. “Homologous recombination is a key DNA repair process often linked to cancer, but ...

AI chatbots can effectively sway voters – in either direction

2025-12-04

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A short interaction with a chatbot can meaningfully shift a voter’s opinion about a presidential candidate or proposed policy in either direction, new Cornell University research finds. The potential for artificial intelligence to affect election results is a major public concern. Two new papers – with experiments conducted in four countries – demonstrate that chatbots powered by large language models (LLMs) are quite effective at political persuasion, moving opposition voters’ preferences ...

Study reveals 'levers' driving the political persuasiveness of AI chatbots

2025-12-04

Even small, open-source AI chatbots can be effective political persuaders, according to a new study. The findings provide a comprehensive empirical map of the mechanisms behind AI political persuasion, revealing that post-training and prompting – not model scale and personalization – are the dominant levers. It also reveals evidence of a persuasion-accuracy tradeoff, reshaping how policymakers and researchers should conceptualize the risks of persuasive AI. There is a growing concern amongst many that advances in AI – particularly conversational ...

'Tiny' tyrannosaurid, Nanotyrannus lancensis, was a distinctive species, not juvenile T. Rex

2025-12-04

Microscopic analysis of an unconventional throat bone helps resolve a long-standing debate in paleontology, researchers report, revealing evidence that Nanotyrannus lancensis – long thought by many to be a teenage Tyrannosaurus rex – was in fact a fully mature, distinct species of smaller tyrannosaurid. Because the fossil record is often fragmentary, it is difficult to discern the full range of distinct dinosaur species that lived in ancient ecosystems. This is made more challenging when trying to determine true new species from juveniles of known ones. One of the most ...

Scientists capture first detailed look inside droplet-like structures of compacted DNA

2025-12-04

Inside human cells, biology has pulled off the ultimate packing job, figuring out how to fit six feet of DNA into a nucleus about one-tenth as wide as a human hair while making sure the all-important molecules can still function. To compress itself, DNA wraps around proteins to form nucleosomes that are linked together like beads on a string. These strings coil into compact chromatin fibers, which are further condensed inside the nucleus. It was unclear how this additional compaction process happened. Then, in 2019, HHMI Investigator Michael Rosen and his team at UT Southwestern Medical Center reported that synthetic nucleosomes created ...

Return of the short (tyrant) king: A new paper by Dinosaur Institute researcher shows Nanotyrannus was not a juvenile T. Rex

2025-12-04

Los Angeles, CA (December 4, 2025)—For decades, paleontologists argued over the lone skull used to establish the distinct species Nanotyrannus. Was it truly a separate species or simply a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex? A new paper published in Science has definitively shown that Nanotyrannus is, in fact, nearly fully grown and not an immature T. rex, at the same time revealing new insights into how these giant predators achieved such terrifying sizes so quickly. A multi-institutional team, including Dinosaur Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Zach Morris, examined the much-debated Nanotyrannus holotype—the specimen used to name ...

New study confirms Nanotyrannus holotype was distinct species from T. rex

2025-12-04

New study confirms Nanotyrannus holotype was diminutive, distinct species from T. rex New research from a team including the University of Nebraska State Museum’s Ashley Poust further moves a decades-long scientific debate toward a conclusion — the Nanotyrannus, a teacup variation of the T. rex, did exist. Poust and the team, led by Christopher Griffin of Princeton University, used a novel approach to determine maturity of the holotype of Nanotyrannus, a fossil skull at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. They examined the ceratobranchial, or hyoid bone, which was intact with the skull, and determined it was an adult when it ...

Carnegie Science names Michael Blanton 12th Observatories Director

2025-12-04

Astronomer Michael R. Blanton will join the Carnegie Science Observatories as its 12th director, overseeing astronomical research in Pasadena and telescope operations at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, one of the world’s elite observing sites. Blanton joins Carnegie Science from New York University, where he is a Professor of Physics and the Director of the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics. He succeeds John Mulchaey, who was named Carnegie Science President in late 2024. Blanton’s research has centered primarily on conducting large astronomical surveys to place ...

From mice to humans in five years: Microglia replacement paving the way for neurodegenerative disease therapies

2025-12-04

Tiny charming immune cells called microglia protect the central nervous system (CNS) in a multitude of ways: They provide innate immunity, shape neurodevelopment, maintain homeostasis and modulate neurological disorders. That functionality can be lost, however, when microglia acquire mutations. An concept to correct this by replacing the mutated microglia with genetically typical cells — now called microglia intervention strategy for therapy and enhancement by replacement, or MISTER — emerged five years ago and was successfully achieved in mice. This year, researchers successfully used the approach to halt a fatal neurological ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Scientists trace microplastics in fertilizer from fields to the beach

The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Women’s Health: Taking paracetamol during pregnancy does not increase risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities, confirms new gold-standard evidence review