NASA’s InSight spacecraft has measured the size of the core of Mars for the first time.
The spacecraft launched in May 2018 and successfully landed on the red planet in November of that year.
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InSight – short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport – was created to study the early evolution of terrestrial planets, including the internal structure of Mars.
The lander also calculates and quantifies tectonic activity and meteorite impacts on the planet and achieved its current findings by examining seismic energy in the interior of Mars or “marsquakes”.
The measurement, presented this week at the virtual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, suggests that the radius of the Martian core is about 1,810 to 1,860 kilometers, according to the scientific journal Nature.
The InSight team reportedly said the measurement is noticeably larger than previous estimates, indicating that the core is less dense than initially projected and likely contains lighter elements.
The Earth and Moon are measured in the same way.
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Knowing the size of a planet’s core is critical to understanding its history and gives researchers context about the planet’s evolution.
Mars was formed over 4.5 billion years ago from minerals and elements found on Earth. NASA knows that Mars once had water – rivers, lakes, and even an ocean – before it dried out and gradually lost a significant portion of its atmosphere.