Welcome to Quantum Magazine's podcast.

Each episode, we bring you stories about developments in science and mathematics.

I'm Susan Vallett.

At one time, Mars looked like something out of a Hollywood movie.

Volcanic cathedrals of flame, unleashing

armies of molten rock that obliterate the surface of the planet. But then, like a bad

movie at the box office, it dropped off. The Martian volcanoes are quiet now. There's

no evidence of any active lava. So scientists assume volcanic activity

ended long ago. We envision Mars like the red-tinged photos we see from the rovers. Cold, still,

lifeless. But maybe not. That's next.

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A recent flurry of results from orbiting spacecraft have found that ancient lava flows on Mars aren't so ancient after all.

Some of them appear to have erupted from volcanic pits within the last few million years,

or perhaps even within the last few tens of thousands of years.

NASA's insight lander has been peeking inside Mars for two years now. It's picked up on some curious

seismic signals emanating from one such volcanic site. The results were presented at a conference

in December, and they're not definitive, but they suggest that Insight could be hearing the sounds

of convulsing magma, the drumbeat of volcanic warfare,

presumed to have fallen silent eons ago. If future data and analyses establish that magma does exist,

that would be a revolutionary reveal. It would be solid evidence in support of a suspicion that scientists have

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