Mars' core
- InSight probe has revealed that Mars has an unexpectedly large core.
- It has a whopping 1,830km radius -- just over half of the planet’s radius.
- This has been revealed by Marsquakes, or seismic tremors on Mars and published over three studies in the Science journal.
InSight mission
- Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport
- NASA’s Mars lander designed to explore the Martian interior.
- The InSight mission is led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
- The spacecraft touched down on Mars in 2018
- Equipped with three primary instruments, the lander will take the first-ever in-depth look at the planet’s interior.
- The data will help:
- Determine the size, composition and state of the core of the planet
- Analyze the thickness and structure of the crust
- Determine the structure of the mantle
- Investigate the thermal state of the interior
- Measure the rate of internal seismic activity
- Measure the rate of meteorite impacts on the Red Planet
Findings:
- Possible average thickness of the Martian crust is between 24km to 72km, ruling out earlier estimates of up to 100km.
- Mars’s lower crust is 13 to 21 times more enriched with radioactive, heat-producing elements than the mantle beneath.
Importance of Finding
- Until now, how much of the red planet each of the layers (Core-Mantle-Crust) occupied was unknown.
- But now, S-waves are reflected back to the surface of the planet by the interface between the core and the mantle, and signals from as many as six Marsquakes have enabled researchers to estimate the size and density of the Martian core.
- This means that the crust of Mars is very old, and it is rather thin,
- The Martian mantle, between the crust and core, extends roughly 970 miles (1,560 kilometres) below the surface.
- Its composition differs from Earth's, suggesting the two planets arose from different materials when they formed more than 4.5 billion years ago.
- The new findings allow scientists to test theories of planet formation