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NASA’s InSight spacecraft has measured the size of the core of Mars for the first time.
The spacecraft was launched in May 2018 and successfully landed on the Red Planet in November of this year.
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InSight – which is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport – was created to study the early evolution of terrestrial planets, including the interior structure of Mars.
The lander also calculates and quantifies the tectonic activity and impacts of meteorites on the planet and has achieved its current results by examining the seismic energy inside Mars or “marsquakes”.
The measurement, which was presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Virtual Conference this week, suggests the Martian core radius is around 1,810 to 1,860 kilometers, according to the science journal Nature.
The InSight team reportedly said the measurement was significantly larger than previous estimates, indicating that the core is less dense than initially projected and likely contains lighter elements.
The Earth and the Moon were measured in the same way.
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Knowing the size of a planet’s core is essential to understanding its history and gives researchers some context on how the planet has evolved.
Mars formed over 4.5 billion years ago from minerals and elements found on Earth. NASA knows that Mars once had water – rivers, lakes, and even an ocean – before becoming dehydrated and gradually losing a significant portion of its atmosphere.
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