An international research team has discovered the existence of a layer of molten silicate covering the metallic core of Mars, providing new insights into how Mars formed, evolved and became the barren planet it is today. Article published in a scientific journal Nature.
NASA’s InSight mission to Mars helped scientists map the internal structure of Mars, including the size and composition of its core, and provided insights into its violent formation.
By finding this layer, researchers determined that Mars’ core is denser and smaller than previously thought. This result is in better agreement with other geophysical data.
The findings support the theory that Mars was once a molten magma ocean, which later crystallized to form a layer of silicate melt enriched in iron and radioactive elements at the base of the Martian mantle.
Vedran Lekovic, co-author of the paper and professor of geology at the University of Maryland in the US, likened the molten layer to a “warming blanket” covering the center of the red planet.
“The blanket not only insulates the heat from the core and prevents it from cooling, but also concentrates radioactive elements whose decay produces heat,” the researcher said.
Previous scientists to create New evidence that ancient Mars was covered with rivers.