A new study has connected seismic data from NASA’s Mars InSight mission to the properties of rocks, sediments and ice on the red planet. Here’s what was revealed.
The hunt country Mars has a long history. In the latest development, analysis of new seismic data from NASA revealed some surprising facts about the red planet. NASA’s Mars InSight mission is an in-depth study of Mars’ “inner space”: its crust, mantle, and core. NASA said, “Studying the interior of Mars answers key questions about the early formation of our inner rocky planets. solar system – Mercury, Venus, The earthand Mars – more than 4 billion years ago, as well as extrasolar planets. “
During this journey, one of the surprises the InSight data presented was that below the landing site near the Martian equator, almost the top 300 meters of the planet’s surface had little or no ice. Geophysicist Vashan Wright of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and three co-authors published their analysis in Geophysical Research Letters on August 9.
The study shows that the crust of Mars is weak and porous and does not have ice or much ice to fill the voids. However, Wright argues, “These findings do not rule out the possibility that there may be ice particles or small ice pellets that do not hold other minerals together. The question is whether ice exists at What’s that like?”
It further mentions that faults in basalt layers are expected to be gas-filled, 2% mineral cement and 98% gas, and less than 20% ice. That’s the reason behind the absence of ice or liquid water even at a depth of 300 meters on Mars, InSight revealed.
The researchers also hope that understanding how much ice and other minerals exist in the Martian surface will help determine whether Mars once supported life. Moreover, it will open up the history of climate, geological systems and will help prepare for human discovery.
