We knew that Mars was rumblier. Scientists say the best explanation so far is ongoing volcanic activity, as new techniques have revealed previously undetected earthquakes beneath the Martian surface.
Mars is not dead, but hosts, underneath its dusty, barren surface, an interior gurgling away with seismic activity.
Knowing that the Martian mantle is still active is crucial to our understanding of how Mars evolved as a planet.
It can help us answer fundamental questions about the Solar System and the state of Mars.
For a long time, scientists believed that there was nothing going on on Mars.
The planet has very little in the way of a magnetic field.
There is no magnetic field on Mars. A magnetic field can mean the difference between life and death. The magnetic field protects us from harmful radiation. Even though it is more distant from the Sun, Mars has higher radiation levels.
All life on Earth is possible because of the Earth's magnetic field and its ability to shield us from radiation from other planets.
When NASA's InSight lander arrived in November of last year, it started listening for the heartbeat of Mars. We can get a detailed map of the Martian interior from the hundreds of marsquakes detected by InSight.
Tkal and Sun wanted to look for quakes that might not have been noticed in the data. They used two unconventional techniques to hunt for events in the data.
The pair detected 47 new marsquakes that were caused by a system of fissures on Mars.
The smaller earthquakes are related to the larger ones that took place in May and July of 2019.
The researchers wanted to figure out the cause of the earthquakes. There was no pattern to the timing of the earthquakes, which was ruled out by their analysis.
We found that the marsquakes occurred at all times of the day on the planet, unlike the marsquakes that NASA reported in the past.
We can assume that the movement of molten rock in the Martian mantle is the cause of the 47 new marsquakes.
Recent analysis of features on the surface of Mars found that the region had been volcanically active in the last 10 million years.
The repetitive movement of magma in the Martian mantle suggests that Mars is more volcanically active than we thought.
The results have implications for our understanding of the history of Mars.
The marsquakes help us understand if the convection is occurring inside of the planet and if it is based on our findings.
Understanding Mars' magnetic field, how it evolved, and at which stage of the planet's history it stopped is important for future missions and is critical if scientists one day hope to establish human life on Mars.
The research has been published.
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