A quake-measuring device on Mars is providing the first detailed look at the red planet's interior, revealing a surprisingly thin crust and a hot molten core beneath the frigid surface.
In a series of articles published this week, scientists reported that the Martian crust is within the thickness range of Earth's. The Martian mantle between the crust and core is roughly half as thick as Earth's. And the Martian core is on the high side of what scientists anticipated, although smaller than the core of our own nearly twice-as-big planet.
Mark Panning of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who took part in the crust study, said even the biggest marsquakes are so weak they would barely be felt on Earth. He's hoping for “the big one” which would make it easier to process the data and define the Martian interior.Current measurements show Mars' crust possibly reaching as deep as 12 miles to 23 miles ; the mantle extending down nearly 1,000 miles ; and the relatively lightweight core with a radius of 1,137 miles .
“By going from cartoon understanding of what the inside of Mars looks like, putting real numbers on it ... we are able to really expand the family tree of understanding” how our solar system's rocky planet formed, Panning said.
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