The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has made the first direct observation of the core of another planet, as its retired InSight Mars lander continues to provide data from its seismometer. In a recently published paper, space scientists reported two ‘marsquakes’ on the surface of Mars in 2021, leading scientists to predict that Mars’ liquid iron core may be smaller and more dense than previously thought. is intense.
Two ‘Earthquake‘ occurred on 25 August and 18 September 2021 and were seen from the opposite side of the InSight lander. This distance holds significance as a predictor as ‘Mars earthquakes’ from the lander is how deep its seismic waves can travel into the planet before being detected.
‘Marsquakes’ differ from ‘earthquakes’ because the planet has no tectonic plates and most earthquakes are generated as a result of faults, or rock fractures, that form in the planet’s crust due to heat and stress.
“We needed both luck and skill to find and then use these earthquakes,” said lead author Jessica Irving, an Earth scientist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Energy is lost or carried away as seismic waves travel through the planet.”
According to Irving, two ‘marsquakes’ occurred after the mission operated on the Red Planet for a full Martian year (about two Earth years). As a result, the scientists at the Marsquake Service, initially responsible for examining the seismograph, had already developed their expertise. One of the two Mars earthquakes produced by a meteorite impact gives seismologists a precise location and more precise data to work with.
“These two distant earthquakes were among the largest earthquakes heard by InSight,” said Bruce Bandet, InSight’s principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “If they weren’t that big, we wouldn’t be able to detect them.”
Read more, Today four asteroids will pass close to the Earth; All you need to know
catch all business News, market news, today’s fresh news events and Breaking News Update on Live Mint. download mint news app To get daily market updates.