The Mystery Of The Inner Planet Mars Finally Revealed

JAKARTA - So far we have only been shown by NASA how the surface of Mars is. But now the space agency has succeeded in unraveling the mysteries of the Red Planet's interior. This is thanks to Mars earthquake data collected by NASA's robotics rover, InSight.

Mashable proclaimed, Thursday, July 29, InSight has collected and detected hundreds of Martian earthquakes since landing on the Red Planet in 2018. Scientists around the world are working together to map what is happening beneath the surface of Mars for the first time.

Published in Science in three papers the scientists detail the thickness, structure of the crust and upper mantle, as well as detailed disclosures of the planet's molten core.

The molten core of Earth's neighbor appears to be quite a departure from Earth's deepest characteristics. Made up mostly of iron-nickel alloys, the Martian core extends about 1,100 miles from the center. While the Earth's inner core is also mostly an iron-nickel alloy but is a solid sphere with a radius of under 800 miles.

The paper also describes the crust as thin as Earth, only reaching about 15 to 45 miles below the surface. This new conclusion draws from measurements made by the InSight seismometer, which measures earthquake vibrations as they vibrate through Mars' interior.

By measuring the speed and intensity of earthquakes as they travel across the planet's layers, scientists are gathering ideas about planetary composition.

As for this Martian earthquake, it brings humans closer to confirming the inner structure of Mars. But this is still a hypothesis based on available data.

With all this new data, scientists are now better equipped to develop the history of how Mars formed. Studying also how other planets formed can provide further insight into the formation of the Solar System and the planets that humans inhabit.

Image Credit: Doc. NASA JPL