NASA’s InSight seismometers recorded the Martian’s tectonic activity underground.
NASA / JPL
In April 2019, the seismometers installed on NASA’s InSight lander picked up a series of rumblings emanating from the underground Martian. This was the first time an earthquake was discovered on a planet other than our own.
Unlike Earth, Mars is a geological place. Its small size meant that much of its internal heat – generated by radioactive decay and by heat left over from primordial formation – had long since escaped into space, and a constant flow of matter in the mantle, which drives plate tectonics on Earth and triggers earthquakes and food. volcanic eruptions, thus closed.
Small merchants still occur, stimulated by thermal changes of Martian bark. Listening to the seismic waves picked up by InSight, scientists measured the size of Mars’ heart, the first time this has been done for another planet. The only other rocky group is a planet in which scientists have measured the heart of the Earth and the Moon. InSight scientists outlined their measurements in several presentations this week at the Lunar Virtual Conference and Planning Science Conference, based out of Houston, Texas.
The measurement shows that the radius of the Martian heart is 1,810 to 1,860 kilometers, about half that of Earth. That’s more than some previous estimates, meaning the heart is thicker than expected. The finding shows that the heart needs lighter elements, such as oxygen, as well as the iron and sulfur that make up much of what it makes up. The core, formed shortly after the formation of Mars about 4.5 billion years ago by heavy minerals and elements heading towards the center of the planet, appears to be still partially molten.