What the Perseverance rover’s quiet landing reveals about meteor strikes on Mars

The rover’s arrival was a rare chance to see how the Red Planet absorbs energy from impacts

image of Perseverance rover from above, landing on Mars

Caption: NASA’s Perseverance rover (shown touching down on Mars in February) landed a few thousand kilometers away from the lander InSight, which attempted to use seismic waves to detect Perseverance’s arrival.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

The lander was listening.