News by Aarya Sinha
Washington Aug 3: NASA’s InSight lander (that landed on Mars in 2018) has provided details about the depth
and composition of the Martian crust, mantle, and core. It confirmed for the first time that the planet’s core is
molten (melted rock or metal because of great heat). These findings have been published in 3 papers of “Journal Science”. During the study, scientists found that the crust was thinner than expected, and is between 20-40 km thick. Beneath the crust is the mantle with lithosphere of solid rocks reaching a depth of 1560km. This is twice as deep as the Earth.
The Martian core has a radius of about 1,840 km (1,137miles), which means that the mantle has only one rocky layer unlike the Earth which has two. For this study, ultra-sensitive seismometers called Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) were deployed. It enabled scientists to confirm that Mars was once completely molten before evolving into crust, mantle and core. This data has also enabled scientists to conclude that multiple tremors on Mars are due to stress caused by its shrinkage.