Mars has a partially liquid internal nucleus and now it was found that there is also a solid one, with a radius of about 613 kilometers, indicates a study based on NASA Insight Mission data.
Chinese and American researchers present direct evidence on the existence of this solid nucleus, in a study published by Nature magazine, and that expands knowledge about the properties and evolution of that planet, as well as other similar planetary bodies.
The team headed by the University of Sciences and Technology of China used data from the Insight landing module, which since December 2018 and for four years compiled data on the interior layers and, especially, the Martian seismic activity.
The measurements suggest the presence of two seismic phases: PKKP (the deep transit phase of the nucleus) and PKIKP, a reflected seismic phase that is used to indicate the presence of a solid internal nucleus, as previously demonstrated for the earth and the moon.
The seismic waves of the PKKP phase arrived at the Sismometer of the insight landizer between 50 and 200 seconds before what would be expected if the nucleus were purely liquid, which suggests the presence of a solid element in its structure.
Other calculations based on these data limit the radius of the Martian solid nucleus to about 613 kilometers, the researchers write.
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Mars is not a planet with layers
In the rocky planets, the presence of a solid internal nucleus has important implications in the composition and thermal evolution of the nucleus, as well as in the magnetic history of the planet.
This finding, says the study, “provides a point of reference to understand Mars’s thermal and chemical state.”
In addition, the relationship between the formation of the internal nucleus and the evolution of the Martian magnetic field could provide information on the generation of Dinamos in the planetary bodies.
Insight mission data have already been used for other scientific studies, the most recent published a week ago in Science.
This article indicates that Mars is not as always the illustrations of textbooks, with layers – cortex, mantle and core -smooth and stratified, but its interior is an irregular amalgam of rocks that testify to their violent origin.
The planet’s mantle contains old fragments of up to four kilometers wide that date back at the time of their violent formation and that have been preserved as geological fossils.
The landing was equipped with a high sensitivity seismometer that, together with the daily monitoring made from Tierram detected 1,319 martemotes, including those caused by meteoroid impacts.
With EFE information.
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