We don’t know for sure if Mars will be our home in the future. The NASA and other organizations dedicated to astronomy investigate the red planet in detail to learn about the formation of our Solar System, if there was ever life there or if there will be soon.
In this sense, the InSight space probe, launched by NASA in 2018, has discovered secrets that were hidden in the core of Mars, which had never been captured by the different rovers that transit the surface of our planetary neighbor.
They had never before found specifications for the core of Mars and thanks to the investigation they discovered that the center of the planet is much smaller and at the same time denser than previously thought. The data arise from two earthquakes registered on Mars, in 2021
This pair of phenomena occurred in a region that scientists call the “shadow zone” of the red planet, where earthquakes do not usually reach the rover, review in a note Cnn in Spanish.
One of the movements on the surface was the product of the impact of a meteorite, which facilitated its registration. These data are the most precise that NASA has detected in the years that it has been exploring our planetary neighbor.
What is this for? Because Mars is a rocky planet, this discovery helps us understand the formation of Earth-like worlds.
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And the space telescope that finds objects in the sky. pic.twitter.com/4FrXTlBsjs— NASA in Spanish (@NASA_es) April 24, 2023
NASA’s InSight probe on Mars
Space exploration continues to amaze us with fascinating discoveries, and NASA’s InSight probe has been instrumental in our understanding of the red planet. Launched on May 5, 2018, the InSight mission’s primary goal is to study the interior of Mars, providing unprecedented insight into its geological structure and processes.
InSight, an acronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is the first mission dedicated exclusively to exploring the deep interior of Mars. Its launch took place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, marking another milestone in space exploration.
Once on Mars, InSight deployed a series of science instruments to carry out its task. The seismometer SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) allowed to detect and measure the seismic movements of the planet, providing information on the tectonic activity and the internal composition of Mars.
Another key instrument is the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe (HP^3), designed to measure the flow of heat from the interior of Mars to its surface. This information will help scientists understand how the planet has cooled since its formation and how internal processes still influence its evolution.
Since its arrival, InSight has provided valuable data and important discoveries on Mars. For example, it has detected thousands of tremors on Mars, allowing scientists to map and analyze the seismic activity of the red planet. These tremors, along with measurements of heat flux, have provided essential information about the internal structure of Mars, including the presence of a liquid core and the existence of a crust and mantle.
