Home » What surprises did NASA InSight discover when it first explored the interior of Mars? | InSight Rover | Mars Interior Map

What surprises did NASA InSight discover when it first explored the interior of Mars? | InSight Rover | Mars Interior Map

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[Epoch Times July 23, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Xia Yu comprehensive report) NASA researchers said on Thursday (July 22) that they have drawn a map of the interior of Mars, using NASA Mars insights Seismic data collected by the InSight Lander (InSight Lander) reveals that Mars is a planet with a molten core. Its size and composition are surprising.

The internal map of Mars is the first internal map of another planet ever drawn by mankind, showing that the internal structure of Mars is completely different from the internal structure of the earth. Mars has a thicker crust and thinner underground mantle, as well as a larger, less dense, and more liquid core than researchers expected.

Scientists said that three papers published in the journal Science on Thursday described the researchers’ findings, indicating that Mars formed millions of years before the Earth, when the sun was still in the process of condensing from a cloud of luminous gas.

Use seismic data to assess the internal structure of Mars

“When we first started to sort out the concept of this mission more than ten years ago, the information in these papers was exactly what we hoped to get in the end.” Bruce InSight’s lead researcher and NASA’s Southern California Jet Propulsion Laboratory Bruce Banerdt said, “This represents the culmination of all the work and thoughts of the past ten years.”

NASA spent $828 million to build the InSight probe, which landed on a flat plain called Elysium Planitia along the Martian equator in 2018. The probe then used a seismograph made in France to spy on the internal structure of Mars. These instruments captured detailed information about hundreds of Martian earthquakes, including how they occurred.

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Using seismic data helps researchers assess the structure of each layer of Mars based on the speed at which seismic waves move through different materials on the planet, such as rocks and liquids.

The different seismic motion patterns of Mars helped researchers understand and map the various levels of this red planet.

Earthquakes on Mars are called “marsquakes” (Marsquakes), very rich, InSight recorded 733 different tremor data. Only about 35 of these data were included in the published papers by NASA.

“This research is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Simon Stähler of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the lead author of the core paper. “Scientists have spent hundreds of years measuring the core of the earth; after the Apollo mission, they spent It took 40 years to measure the core of the moon. Insight took only two years to measure the core of Mars.”

Sanne Cottaar, a seismologist at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, said of this new study: “It provides us with the first sample of the interior of a rocky planet like the Earth, which is made of the same material. Yes, but very, very different.” “Impressive.”

On April 25, 2019, InSight was on Mars. (NASA)

A glimpse of the internal structure of Mars

Scientists have learned from these data and further research that Mars has become warmer in the process of being composed of meteoric matter and space dust orbiting the sun. Similar to Earth, Mars also has its own crust, mantle, and core.

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The new findings show that the core radius of Mars is close to 1,137 miles (1,830 kilometers), extending approximately to the middle of the planet’s surface. Scientists have learned that the molten core is not very dense, it is likely to contain a mixture of light elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and sulfur. Surrounding the core is a relatively thin mantle, which may consist of only two to three layers of rock.

Studies have found that the top of the mantle is an unusually thick and hard upper mantle and crust, called the lithosphere. Scientists say that the lithosphere appears to be two to three times thicker than similar formations on Earth, and the crust itself is between 14 and 44 miles (24 to 72 kilometers) thick.

Researchers hope to detect larger earthquakes

Earthquake monitoring by InSight revealed that a volcanic area called Cerberus Fossae on Mars is active and may have spewed lava flows over the past few million years.

Of all the seismic activity on Mars recorded so far, NASA scientists have not seen any earthquakes of magnitude greater than 4.0. Larger earthquakes can provide researchers with more data and help them learn more about Mars.

“We still want to see big (earthquakes).” said Mark Panning, another lead author of NASA’s paper on Mars’ crust. The data extracts what we want. Greater (earthquake) activity will make this easier.”

Scientists say that Mars is so stable that InSight’s sensors can detect tiny tremors from faults thousands of kilometers away. “This proves the tranquility of Mars.” Penning said, “You will never be so quiet on Earth, because no matter where you go, the ocean always makes a vibrating noise.”

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Editor in charge: Ye Ziwei#

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