Insight data shows the size of Mars’ core

The insiglander

This artist’s concept shows the InSight lander, its sensors, cameras and instruments. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

An international team of researchers studying seismic data collected by NASA’s spacecraft Insight used the data to calculate the size of Mars’ core. The group plans to discuss their findings during this year’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, which will be held virtually due to the pandemic. As a prelude to the conference, team member Simon Stähler made a pre-recorded presentation available to interested parties. The team plans to submit their results to a peer-reviewed journal in the near future.

So far, the earth and the moon have been the only celestial bodies to measure their nuclei. To make such measurements, scientists used seismic data from sensors that detect the sounds made by shaking. NASA was eager to do the same for Mars, sending Insight to the red planet – it landed near the planet’s equator in 2018 and began listening to Marsquakes shortly thereafter. To date, sensors on board the craft have captured seismic data for about 500 earthquakes. The researchers found that most quakes were relatively small compared to those on Earth, although about 50 of them were between 2 and 4 – strong enough to measure the inside of the planet. Before the core was measured, data from Insight were used to measure the depth and thickness of the layers of the Martian crust.

Using seismic data to measure the inside of a planetary body requires many measurements. The sensors can see where such waves start and end, revealing how long it takes for a wave to pass through a given part of the planet. This makes the calculation of density possible. Using these data, the researchers were able to measure the depth of the boundary between the core and the mantle in many places, which enabled them to calculate the size of the core – it has a radius of between 1810 and 1860 kilometers , which is about half the size of the earth’s core. This finding is somewhat of a surprise – previous research has suggested it would be bigger. The new data suggests that the core should contain more light elements than previously thought.


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More information:
Seismic Detection of the Mars Core by InSight, www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1545.pdf

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