Scientists finetune hitting earth5/8/2023 ![]() "The dust is very thick on our solar panels, and a huge storm on Mars has kicked a lot of dust into the atmosphere, partially blocking the Sun on our solar panels," Dr Banerdt said. Much more data from impacts and Marsquakes are needed to understand this enigmatic planet, but InSight's days are numbered.Īlready low on battery, it has been caught up in a planetary dust storm. It's almost over for this little red robot "Not only can we determine the existence of a core, but we can also determine how large it is," Professor Tkalčić said. Instead of using a single seismometer to detect waves coming in, his method uses the location of the impact events and Mars quakes themselves as a network of sensors to scan the planet. Their findings indicate the core has a radius of 1,812 kilometres, give or take 20km. Meanwhile, new research by Professor Tkalčić and his colleague Sheng Wang, also published today in Nature Astronomy, has confirmed measurements of the planet's core. ![]() "The more we know about Mars, the more we know about the solar system and the terrestrial planets," she said.Įvidence is mounting that the Red Planet may still be volcanically active within Cerberus Fossae region.Ī new analysis of all the Mars quakes detected by InSight, published in Nature Astronomy, indicates that magma may still flow deep within the planet. Unravelling the mysteries of Mars can help us understand how our own planet formed, Dr Miljkovic said. The wave velocity detected in the south suggests the composition of the deeper layers of the crust in both hemispheres is similar. ![]() surface waves traversing one of the largest volcanic provinces in the northern hemisphere," Dr Kim said.Īnd because the waves circle the entire planet, they also provide information about the southern hemisphere. Scientists speculate the difference in crust depth between the two hemispheres may have been caused by some kind of giant impact in the past, or differences in heating deep below the surface.Ī colour-coded topographical map of Mars shows differences between hemispheres (blue is low, red is high). While the northern half of the planet is thinner and dominated by volcanic lowlands, the thicker highlands of the southern hemisphere are pockmarked with craters. The impact events may help scientists get to the bottom of a long-standing mystery known as the Mars dichotomy. "They are in a completely different part of Mars." Unpacking the mysterious Mars dichotomy ![]() "They provide these additional constraints that we didn't have before based on the Marsquakes that were recorded," said Professor Tkalčić, who has developed a new method of measuring seismic activity. The strong impacts allowed scientists to sample a new part of the Martian underground architecture, said Hrvoje Tkalčić, a seismologist at the Australian National University. Pinpointing the location of impact events helps scientists understand how fast waves travel and what they're travelling through, so they can fine-tune their models of the planet's interior. ![]()
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