Ever wondered what’s going on beneath the surface of Mars?
Thanks to NASA’s InSight mission, scientists have been getting a clearer picture of the Red Planet’s insides.
And now, there’s a new twist in the story!
A Surprise Beneath the Surface
A group of international scientists made an exciting discovery: there’s a molten (or melted) layer of silicates lying right above Mars’ core.
Imagine this layer as a warm blanket covering the heart of Mars. Silicates are basically minerals that help form the outer layers of planets, like Mars and Earth.
But why is this important? This discovery means Mars’ core (its center) is smaller and denser than we originally thought.
This new finding fits better with other data and what we know from Martian meteorites (rocks from Mars that have landed on Earth).
Mars’ Cozy Blanket: Why It’s a Big Deal
Dr. Vedran Lekic, a geology expert from the University of Maryland, gives a cool comparison. He says this molten layer acts like a “heating blanket” for Mars’ core.
The blanket keeps the core warm by not letting its heat escape. Plus, it has radioactive elements in it that produce even more heat.
But here’s the twist: because of this “heating blanket,” Mars’ core can’t move around in a way that would create a protective magnetic field around the planet.
Earth has such a magnetic field, and it acts like a shield against harmful solar rays. Without this shield, Mars loses water from its surface and can’t support life as we know it.
This difference in having (or not having) a magnetic shield might be why Earth and Mars had such different histories. While Earth has life and water, Mars is more of a barren desert.
Henri Samuel, the main author of this study and a scientist from France, said that for Mars to have had a magnetic field in its early days, there must have been other sources of energy.
Maybe Mars had big impacts or interacted with moons that have since disappeared.
From a Hot Magma Ocean to Today
The researchers think that long ago, Mars was like a big ocean of hot, melted rock. This ocean then turned solid and left behind the molten layer with iron and radioactive elements.
These elements kept producing heat, which changed how Mars cooled down over time.
Dr. Lekic explained that this warm layer could have had a huge impact on Mars. It affects if a planet can have a magnetic field, how it cools down, and how its inside parts move and change over the years.
NASA’s InSight mission to Mars ended in 2022 after gathering lots of information for over four years. But scientists like Samuel and Lekic are still studying that data and learning new things.
Dr. Lekic said this molten layer finding is just one example of the amazing discoveries from the InSight mission. He hopes that by studying Mars’ insides, we’re preparing for future space missions, maybe to the Moon or even Venus.
Key Takeaways
Mars has a warm, melted layer right above its core, acting like a cozy blanket.
This discovery changes how we see the Red Planet and might explain why it doesn’t have a protective magnetic shield like Earth.
As we dig deeper into Mars’ secrets, who knows what else we might uncover?
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Source: University of Maryland.
