Mars has a solid inner core about 1,200 kilometers in diameter. The InSight probe carried the first seismometer to another planet and recorded more than 1,000 marsquakes from 2018 until 2022, when dust storms disabled its solar panels. Earlier models described Mars as having a liquid molten-iron core. Analysis of 23 quakes with seismic waves that traversed and reflected inside the planet, using a method analogous to Inge Lehmann's 1936 approach, indicates a solid inner core. The finding challenges prior understanding of Mars' internal structure and deepens questions about the planet's loss of oceans and habitability. The study was published in Nature.
The U.S. probe InSight holds the distinction of carrying the first seismometer to another planet. The NASA mission began operating in 2018, recording ground tremors known as marsquakes. By 2022, after logging more than 1,000 quakes, frequent dust storms disabled its solar panels, ending the spacecraft's operational life. Nevertheless, it managed to shed light on the internal structure of the planet for the first time.
In 1936, a Danish woman named Inge Lehmann used signals from a similar earthquake in New Zealand to demonstrate that Earth has a solid inner core. Today's scientists followed a nearly identical method to analyze the arrival of different seismic waves. Their results suggest that Mars' inner core is solid and measures approximately 1,200 kilometers in diameter. The findings were published on Wednesday in Nature, a leading global science journal.
Data from a U.S. probe that stopped working three years ago has just revealed the existence of a 1,200-kilometer-wide (740 miles) metal core deep inside Mars. According to its discoverers, this is the planet's solid core a finding that contradicts what was previously believed about our neighboring world. The discovery deepens the mystery of why Mars, once a blue planet with oceans, rivers, and possible forms of life, suddenly transformed into a desert where radiation would annihilate any surface life.
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