[ad_1]
NASA’s InSight lander revealed the depth of Mars’ crust and the size of its central core using data from dozens of earthquakes captured since the spacecraft landed in 2018.
The Seismic Experiment for the Interior Structure (SEIS) is a dome-shaped instrument that sits on the surface of Mars and can pick up seismic events hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away. Since its deployment, the mission has recorded 733 separate earthquakes, of which around 35 were used for the work in progress. All earthquakes recorded between magnitudes 3 and 4.
Their analysis shows that the Martian crust is between 12 and 23 miles (20-37 km) thick. Underneath is the mantle, which stretches about 970 miles to the Martian core, which has been found to have a radius of 1,137 miles.
The Earth’s crust is also about 35 km thick, but our planet is 1.8 times the size of Mars. In terms of percentages, the Martian mantle and core are similar to that of Earth at around 45% and 54% of the planet’s radius, respectively.
Mars is only the third celestial object, after the Earth and the Moon, to be the subject of these measurements. A key finding is that the Martian core is still molten; most scientists had assumed it would be solid.
[ad_2]
Source link