InSight Mars lander Reveals the Planet's Soft and Gooey Side

InSight doesn't have the coverage of Percy or Curiosity mainly because in just sits there waiting for something to happen but it's discoveries could be more significant than either of its siblings.

Clouds drift over the dome-covered seismometer, known as SEIS, belonging to NASA's InSight lander, on Mars. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

InSight landed on Mars in 2818 and since then has sat on the surface listening for Mars Quakes , the reason for the interest in Mars Quakes is they can reveal what lies beneath the surface and now Insight's team have announced the discoveries they have made so far about the interior of Mars, most important of those for me is that Mars does have a molten mantle and Core.

I’ve mapped the interior of Mars for the first time and found some surprises:

- Crust: thinner than expected, with maybe two or three sub-layers
- Mantle: a single layer (969 mi/1,560 km), simpler than Earth’s
- Core: larger than expected (1,137 mi/1,830 km radius), and molten
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Each of the papers in Science focuses on a different layer. The scientists found the crust was thinner than expected and may have two or even three sub-layers. It goes as deep as 12 miles (20 kilometers) if there are two sub-layers, or 23 miles (37 kilometers) if there are three.

Beneath that is the mantle, which extends 969 miles (1,560 kilometers) below the surface.

At the heart of Mars is the core, which has a radius of 1,137 miles (1,830 kilometers). Confirming the size of the molten core was especially exciting for the team. “This study is a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” said Simon Stähler of the Swiss research university ETH Zurich, lead author of the core paper. “It took scientists hundreds of years to measure Earth’s core; after the Apollo missions, it took them 40 years to measure the Moon’s core. InSight took just two years to measure Mars’ core.”
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The hundreds of marsquakes I’ve measured now confirm it: Mars may be cold and crusty on the outside, but it’s warm and gooey on the inside.

New science results from my seismometer reveal more about the heart of Mars and how all rocky planets form:
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It's an important discovery for the prospects of discovering Martian life as the chances are that the subsurface lakes believed to exist could host Hydrothermal Vents which are bringers of life on Earth.

Mars being a dead planet is a belief that's melting away with every mission to the red (not dead) planet.

a reply to: gortex

Thanks, Gortex. I haven't been following InSight and was only aware of its existence and not what it did. The theory was that Mars' core had cooled and there was nothing to see. I am glad that, as always, science is never "settled."

originally posted by: gortex
InSight landed on Mars in 2818 and since then has sat on the surface listening for Mars Quakes...

Might want to fix that, unless you are from the future?

Either way excellent post!

a reply to: gortex


Ummm…thank you once again for keeping me abreast of science and Mars…without your contributions I wouldn’t be able to fully feed my science appetite…

I think it’s exciting to learn that Mars has a molten core…and surprising how large that core is…


I really appreciate your contributions to ATS…there’s always something new and refreshing to learn…ATS is my only go to place for news soo…

…and……


We may not agree on everything in the political realm…but who the eff really cares about that anyway…certainly not I…


I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you…especially how you contribute to my edification…



YouSir

a reply to: gortex

It's an important discovery for the prospects of discovering Martian life

There is no prospect of discovering any life . Because there is ZERO life nor ever was. We need to stop this life on mars nonsense. Scientists got it wrong for decades and they keep trying to beat a dead horse..

It's 2021 and we still hold on to this outdate belief. Why ? To keep useless rovers going back and save some jobs..

Mars never had life. Nor will it . Nor will we find Evidence. If there was life we would've found it by now .

Yes i am a firm believer in Mars missions being a waste of money . That money and research could be used to push new propulsion technology so we can get off this planet.

Again. Zero real evidence of life on mars to date.

Just nonsense they try to link as BuIlDinG bLoCks oF LiFe

Mars has clouds?

originally posted by: seedofchucky
a reply to: gortex


Mars never had life. Nor will it . Nor will we find Evidence. If there was life we would've found it by now.

Being able to identify current microbial life with the instruments that can fit on a lander or rover is extremely difficult. It's even more difficult to find signs of past microbial life. That's why they are planning a sample return mission, so they can use full-sized labs on Earth to analyze the samples.

Study shows difficulty in finding evidence of life on Mars

Will We Recognize Life on Mars When We See It?

Correctly identifying life on Mars will be more difficult than previously thought

What makes it harder is that the tests they come up with can only look for life signatures that they know (i.e., signatures from life as we know it). Looking for signatures from life as we don't know it is more problematic because they need to guess what those signatures might be, and there are by definition unknown variables when it comes to those signatures.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

Mars has clouds?

Yes , here are some captured by Curiosity rover a couple of months ago.


www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: gortex
Mars being a dead planet is a belief that's melting away with every mission to the red (not dead) planet.

The planet itself may be geologically and meteorologically active, but I'm pretty convinced that Mars has no indigenous lifeforms or ever did. As I've said elsewhere, life is pernicious. Drop a probe pretty much anywhere on Earth and you'll find either life itself or signs of life within minutes or hours. We've had probes sitting on that planet for years now and have had no clear indication that there is life there now or ever. It's the prime mission of Perseverance. So far, nothing. Every day that goes by without finding it decreases the odds of it being there at all.

a reply to: Blue Shift

We've had probes sitting on that planet for years now and have had no clear indication that there is life there now or ever.

NASA may have found an explanation for that thanks to experiments done by Curiosity rover.

The findings published in the July 9 edition of the journal Science and led by the team in charge of the Chemistry and Mineralogy, or CheMin, instrument – aboard NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover – help add to the understanding of where the rock record preserved or destroyed evidence of Mars’ past and possible signs of ancient life.

“We used to think that once these layers of clay minerals formed at the bottom of the lake in Gale Crater, they stayed that way, preserving the moment in time they formed for billions of years,” said Tom Bristow, CheMin principal investigator and lead author of the paper at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “But later brines broke down these clay minerals in some places – essentially resetting the rock record.”

Previous work revealed that while Gale Crater’s lakes were present and even after they dried out, groundwater moved below the surface, dissolving and transporting chemicals. After they were deposited and buried, some mudstone pockets experienced different conditions and processes due to interactions with these waters that changed the mineralogy. This process, known as “diagenesis,” often complicates or erases the soil’s previous history and writes a new one.

Diagenesis creates an underground environment that can support microbial life. In fact, some very unique habitats on Earth – in which microbes thrive – are known as “deep biospheres.”
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It's below the surface where we will find life , I'm in no doubt that it is there.

originally posted by: gortex
It's below the surface where we will find life , I'm in no doubt that it is there.

Hey, maybe. It could happen, I suppose. But I find it incredibly unlikely. But since there's no way to prove for sure there isn't life there (can't prove a negative), there will always be somebody willing to pay to look for it.