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Mars clip was taken from a 2019 panoramic image. It doesn’t include sounds from the planet’s surface
If Your Time is short
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The video clip is actually a panoramic photograph taken in 2019 by the Curiosity rover that was edited into video form.
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The sounds are not from the surface of Mars and were edited onto the video. Curiosity is not equipped with microphones.
When it landed on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover made history as the first equipped to capture sound from the planet.
But a video shared thousands of times recently on social media is being misrepresented as a feed from Perseverance with sounds that were recorded on Mars’ surface.
"The first images sent to Earth by a rover," one post reads. "Turn up the volume and listen to the sound of Mars."
"Amazing Mars (Sound On)," another says.
The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
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While the images in the clip are from Mars, the video is a film version of a panoramic photograph that was taken in 2019 by another rover called Curiosity, which landed on the planet in 2012. The word "Curiosity" is visible in the bottom left-hand corner near the end of the clip.
Meanwhile, the Curiosity rover doesn’t have microphones, and the sound effects were edited in.
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The 1.8-billion pixel panorama of the surface of Mars was taken between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 2019, and was identified by NASA as the source of the clip’s imagery. The space agency told the Associated Press that Curiosity doesn’t have any sound from Mars.
NASA has picked up seismic vibrations from the planet in the past, but said it hasn’t yet recorded sounds from the surface using microphones.
These posts are False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, Feb. 21, 2021
DISRN.com, Watch: Incredible 26 seconds of full color and full sound from the surface of Mars, Feb. 19, 2021
NASA, Curiosity's 1.8-Billion-Pixel Panorama, Accessed Feb. 25, 20221
NASA, Sounds of Mars, Accessed Feb. 25, 2021
YouTube, Sounds of Mars: NASA’s InSight Senses Martian Wind, Dec. 7, 2018
Associated Press,Viral video does not include actual sounds from Mars, Feb. 19, 2021
Reuters, Fact check: 2019 Mars panorama shared as if from Perseverance, Feb 22, 2021
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Mars clip was taken from a 2019 panoramic image. It doesn’t include sounds from the planet’s surface
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