Sweet Surprise: NASA Insight’s first glance inside Mars reveals Red Planet’s shell resembling a three-layer cake
- The lander’s seismometer recorded over 480 earthquakes in April 2019
- Differences in seismic wave motion allow scientists to evaluate the size and composition of the crust
- They believe that the crust of Mars is about 23 miles thick, much thicker than that of Earth.
- Seismic activity has virtually stopped, with only four earthquakes in June
Data sent back to Earth from NASA’s InSight platform suggests that the crust of Mars is made up of three layers resembling torture.
Anchored near the equator of Mars, the super-sensitive seismometer of the robotic lander, known as SEIS, has recorded hundreds of “earthquakes” in the last two years.
Each earthquake emits two sets of seismic waves and analyzing the differences in the way these waves move allowed researchers to begin calculating the size and composition of the planet’s crust, mantle and core.
“We have enough data to start answering some of these big questions,” Jet Ban Laboratory researcher Bruce Banerdt told Nature.
Launched in 2018, the InSight mission marks the first time scientists have looked inside a planet other than Earth.
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Analysis of primary and secondary waves caused by hundreds of earthquakes suggests that the crust of the red planet is composed of three layers of “cake” type
The Earth’s crust is divided into three rock substrates: metamorphic, magmatic and sedimentary.
Scientists theorized that the crust of Mars was similarly structured, but so far had no data to work with.
According to the Nature report, Mars may have only two layers, but a three-layer crust aligns with the analysis of Martian meteorites.
Comparing the primary and secondary waves of Marxism, they deduced that the crust has an average thickness of about 23 miles and almost the thickest of 42.
NASA’s InSight lander arrived on Mars in 2018, but its “Mole” spacecraft had difficulty drilling below the surface
InSight’s super-sensitive seismometer, known as SEIS, recorded more than 480 earthquakes. Analyzing the primary and secondary waves from these earthquakes, the researchers believe that the crust of Mars is about 23 miles thick.
This is considerably thicker than Earth, which has a crust ranging from about 3 miles under the oceans to 18 miles below the continents.
InSight (short for Inner Exploration using seismic investigations, geodesy and heat transport) arrived on Mars in November 2018.
Its probe, dubbed the Mole, was designed to dig beneath the surface and take the temperature of the planet – but unexpected properties in Martian soil have made difficult progress.
Other equipment on the lander is fully functional, fortunately – including the seismometer, provided by the French space agency, Center National d’Études Spatiales.
Since April 2019, SEIS has recorded over 480 earthquakes. Earthquakes are relatively light, with no larger than magnitude 3.7.
“It’s a little surprising that we haven’t seen a bigger event,” said seismologist Mark Panning of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Panning says it’s not yet clear if Mars is just more static than Earth or if InSight landed during a quiet interlude.
The earthquakes had been daily for some time, but stopped abruptly at the end of June – just as the planet entered its windiest season of the year.
The seismometer has shielding, but it is possible that the wind is so strong that it shakes the earth and masks legitimate tremors.
Researchers hope that more major earthquakes will follow, providing a greater perspective on the inner layers of the planet.
“Sometimes you get big flashes of amazing information, but most of the time you erase what nature has to tell you,” Banerdt said.
“It’s more like trying to follow a clue of complicated clues than having the answers presented in a nicely packaged package.”
WHAT ARE THREE KEY INSIGHT TOOLS?
The lander that could reveal how the Earth formed: the InSight lander took off on Mars on November 26
Three key tools will allow the InSight lander to “take the pulse” of the red planet:
Seismograph: InSight Lander wears a seismograph, SEIS, listening to the pulse of Mars.
The seismometer records the waves that travel through the inner structure of a planet.
Studying seismic waves tells us what waves could create.
On Mars, scientists suspect that the culprits may be earthquakes or meteorites hitting the surface.
Heat probe: InSight’s heat flux probe, HP3, sinks deeper than any other ball, drill or probe on Mars before it.
It will investigate how much heat is flowing from Mars.
Radio antennas: Like Earth, Mars wobbles slightly as it rotates around its axis.
To study this, two radio antennas, which are part of the RISE instrument, track the location of the lander very precisely.
This helps scientists test the planet’s reflexes and tells them how the deep inner structure affects the planet’s motion around the Sun.