An illustration presents the liquid silicate layer that enshrouds the core of Mars. Image credit goes to IPGP / CNES / N. Starter.
Recent research from NASA’s InSight mission discloses a molten silicate layer encasing the core of Mars, offering fresh hints about the planet’s formative history and its once greater potential for life.
The InSight mission has provided detailed mappings of the Martian interior, shedding light on the size and makeup of its core and suggesting aspects of its volatile creation.
Newly published insights in the journal Nature, stemming from an international collective of scientists, uncovered a molten silicate layer above the Martian core. This discovery sheds light on the processes that shaped Mars, its development, and its current desolate state.
Seismic Revelations
The findings, published on October 25, 2023, describe seismic data’s role in pinpointing a molten layer of silicates—essential minerals comprising Mars’ and Earth’s crust and mantle—positioned between Mars’ mantle and its core. This revelation has led to a re-evaluation of Mars’ core, now understood to be smaller and denser than previously thought, aligning more closely with other geophysical data and Martian meteorite studies.
Geologist Vedran Lekic from the University of Maryland, who co-authored the research, likens the molten layer to a ‘thermal blanket’ around the core of Mars.
“This thermal covering not only keeps the core’s heat from dissipating but also concentrates radioactive elements that produce heat through decay,” explained Lekic. He noted that this could lead to a stagnant core unable to drive convective movements necessary for generating a magnetic field, which may explain the absence of a current active magnetic field on Mars.
Potential for Martian Life
Mars, lacking a magnetic field, is left unprotected against severe solar winds, leading to the stripping away of surface water and rendering it inhospitable to life. According to Lekic, Earth and Mars’ differing internal structures and evolutionary trajectories account for their stark contrasts.
Henri Samuel, the study’s lead author from the French National Center for Scientific Research, indicated that Mars’ core was once possibly surrounded by energetic impacts or gravitational interactions with ancient moons, now lost, that could have induced a magnetic field, as evidenced in Martian crustal records from the planet’s early history.
The researchers propose that early Mars was once engulfed in a magma ocean which crystallized, forming an iron and radioactive element-rich silicate melt at the mantle’s base. This would have significantly altered Mars’ thermal evolution and cooling trajectory.
Implications and Further Exploration
The existence of such layers, if proven to be extensive, could significantly influence our understanding of planetary magnetic field generation, cooling over time, and internal dynamic changes, Lekic noted.
Although the InSight mission concluded in December 2022, the data it collected continues to be analyzed. Researchers like Samuel and Lekic are reevaluating Martian models through seismic data to confirm the planet’s complex past.
“The unveiling of a molten layer through the InSight mission’s findings exemplifies our ongoing advancements in understanding planetary evolution,” said Lekic. He expressed hope that their seismic investigations would set the stage for future explorations of the moon, Venus, and other celestial entities.
Further information on this study is accessible through the following:
InSight Lander’s Breakthrough on Mars’ Liquid Enigma
Deciphering Mars’ Core Enigma
Citation for the research: “Geophysical evidence for an enriched molten silicate layer above Mars’s core” by Henri Samuel et al., dated October 25, 2023, in Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06601-8
NASA, the National Center for Space Studies, the French National Research Agency, the European Research Council, and the U.K. Space Agency funded this research. The views in this narrative do not necessarily represent those of the funding organizations.
Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Martian core layer
What did the InSight mission reveal about Mars’ core?
NASA’s InSight mission discovered a molten silicate layer around Mars’ core, suggesting it is smaller and denser than previously believed.
How does the molten layer affect Mars’ potential to sustain life?
The layer acts as a thermal blanket, inhibiting magnetic field creation, leaving Mars vulnerable to solar winds and unable to sustain surface water or life.
What implications does the discovery of the molten silicate layer have?
The discovery provides insights into the thermal evolution of Mars and its inability to generate a sustainable magnetic field due to a static core.
Who contributed to the research on the molten silicate layer on Mars?
An international team led by Henri Samuel and including Vedran Lekic, with funding from various agencies, contributed to the research findings.
What future research may be influenced by the InSight mission’s findings?
The data from InSight will help in understanding planetary evolution and aid in planning future missions to celestial bodies like the moon and Venus.
More about Martian core layer
- InSight Mission Overview
- Nature Journal Article
- Seismic Data in Planetary Exploration
- Understanding Mars’ Geophysical Properties
- Thermal Evolution of Planets
4 comments
really fascinating stuff about mars did anyone else think we knew all there was to know about inside the planet
what’s this mean for future trips to Mars? could we use that heat from the core somehow, just thinking out loud here
was reading the article and it said something about how mars lost its water, that’s pretty sad right? like it could’ve had life once
i saw this and was like wow a molten blanket that’s hot stuff, no pun intended haha. but really, space science never ceases to amaze man