Review of InSight data allows scientists to further refine their model of Mars’ interior
Using archive data from the now defunct InSight Mars lander, especially two seismic detections that came from the planet’s far side, scientists now believe that Mars’ central core is significantly different than Earth’s, being entirely liquid and made up of much lighter materials than expected.
To determine these differences, the team tracked the progression of two distant seismic events on Mars, one caused by a marsquake and the other by a large impact, and detected waves that traveled through the planet’s core. By comparing the time it took those waves to travel through Mars compared to waves that stayed in the mantle, and combining this information with other seismic and geophysical measurements, the team estimated the density and compressibility of the material the waves traveled through. The researchers’ results indicated that Mars most likely has a completely liquid core, unlike Earth’s combination of a liquid outer core and solid inner core.
Additionally, the team inferred details about the core’s chemical composition, such as the surprisingly large amount of light elements (elements with low atomic numbers)—namely sulfur and oxygen—present in Mars’ innermost layer. The team’s findings suggested that a fifth of the core’s weight is made up of those elements. This high percentage differs sharply from the comparatively lesser weight proportion of light elements in Earth’s core, indicating that Mars’ core is far less dense and more compressible than Earth’s core, a difference that points to different conditions of formation for the two planets.
These differences, if confirmed, would certainly affect the way Mars’ surface evolved over the eons, and might help explain its giant volcanoes as well as the planet’s lack of a magnetic field.
The results however remain uncertain, because InSight provided only one seismometer on Mars. To better triangulate the data will require more than one, in the future.
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Using archive data from the now defunct InSight Mars lander, especially two seismic detections that came from the planet’s far side, scientists now believe that Mars’ central core is significantly different than Earth’s, being entirely liquid and made up of much lighter materials than expected.
To determine these differences, the team tracked the progression of two distant seismic events on Mars, one caused by a marsquake and the other by a large impact, and detected waves that traveled through the planet’s core. By comparing the time it took those waves to travel through Mars compared to waves that stayed in the mantle, and combining this information with other seismic and geophysical measurements, the team estimated the density and compressibility of the material the waves traveled through. The researchers’ results indicated that Mars most likely has a completely liquid core, unlike Earth’s combination of a liquid outer core and solid inner core.
Additionally, the team inferred details about the core’s chemical composition, such as the surprisingly large amount of light elements (elements with low atomic numbers)—namely sulfur and oxygen—present in Mars’ innermost layer. The team’s findings suggested that a fifth of the core’s weight is made up of those elements. This high percentage differs sharply from the comparatively lesser weight proportion of light elements in Earth’s core, indicating that Mars’ core is far less dense and more compressible than Earth’s core, a difference that points to different conditions of formation for the two planets.
These differences, if confirmed, would certainly affect the way Mars’ surface evolved over the eons, and might help explain its giant volcanoes as well as the planet’s lack of a magnetic field.
The results however remain uncertain, because InSight provided only one seismometer on Mars. To better triangulate the data will require more than one, in the future.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
They claim that the Martian core is wholly liquid with no solid centre. Earth’s core is solid, and spins, inside a liquid “outer core” shell. Earth’s core delivers a magnetic field which prevents our ionosphere from escaping. Thus allowing a stable atmosphere.
How is it that Mars used to own a magnetic field, though? How does a solid core liquefy over time?
The liquid is water not melted metals and magma.
The water is not magnetic and does not rotate thus Mars has a very small magnetic field. In fact it more than likely never had much of a magnetic field after it cooled from its original formation.
In fact the magma in Earths center keeps pushing the water back to the surface.
The water on Mars just seeped down to the center and sits their waiting for someone to drill down a bunch of miles to get to it.