PLANETARY SEISMOLOGY

Since 1969, seismology has been extended beyond the Earth, and seismic sensors have been placed on the surface of other bodies of the solar system. A Lunar seismic network thus operated for the 8 years after 1969, with up to 4 stations, and detected some 1000 Moonquakes per year. A single seismic station was also operated on the Martian surface for 19 months since 1977. Unfortunately, it did not detect any Marsquakes, but produced useful information for future experiments. Remote-sensing seismic experiments using Doppler shift observation have also been applied to Jupiter in the last two years and are beginning to return information on the normal modes. Planetary seismology is thus now well developed, and will provide increasing information on the structure and dynamics of the planets and bodies of the solar system. In this paper we review the state of the art in planetary seismology. For the terrestrial planets, we compare the seismic sources, structure and experiments on Earth, Moon and Mars. Such a comparison is useful in evaluating the design of past or future experiments. Results in the seismology of giant planets are also reviewed, stressing the connection between methods and theory.