Mars was thought to be dead by scientists.
There are ancient lava flows in some places and the planet is filled with volcanos. The world seemed to have lost its volcanic fervor.
Scientists have found the first evidence of molten lava below the surface of Mars.
Mars's history could be changed by the presence of active lava, from its formation to the time when it may have hosted life, to the loss of its atmosphere and cold rock. Scientists understand rocky planets beyond our solar system because of that.
The scientists were clued in by a series of Mars earthquakes. Most large earthquakes came from that spot.
Anna Mittelholz, a planetary scientist on the team of researchers behind the discovery, told Insider that they found something that wasn't consistent with what they thought it was.
The leader of the team said "Oh no, we broke Mars."
There have been more than 1,300 earthquakes on the red planet. Scientists were surprised that the most powerful tremors all came from the same area.
Researchers analyzed 20 of the big earthquakes in a paper published on Thursday. Every part of Mars they travel through is covered by seismo waves. The researchers found that certain waves were moving slower than they thought.
The only possible answer was that the region has to be hot.
That shows the presence of molten lava below the surface. The scientists think that the chamber of magma is the cause of the rumblings below the surface of Mars.
Simon Sthler, who led the study, said in a press release that it is possible that the last remnants of the once active volcanic region are now moving eastward.
Smaller, surface-level earthquakes are likely caused by the movement breaking up the planet's crust.
There is some volcanic activity going on down there. It is very difficult to explain the data. It's pretty conclusive here. What would we expect around the world? "I said that."
The seismometer on Mars is the only one of its kind. Smaller earthquakes can't be detected by it because it's only one station in one location. Scientists don't have a lot of information about Mars's seismology. NASA needs to send more seismometers to Mars to get a better picture of the planet's volcanic activity.
Scientists expected InSight to detect earthquakes from many different places because of the numerous fault lines on Mars.
Mars has astounded them. The majority of the earthquakes have come from the same place.
It will take some time to figure out what this means and why. What's special about the person? I wouldn't say it's what we were expecting.
Dust builds up on its solar panels as it runs out of power The mission on Mars is expected to end in January of next year. There won't be a seismometer on Mars to collect new data.
The data set will be there for a while. "There's been so much data coming all the time that it's actually been hard to fully take all the information that's in it."
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