NASA data shows Mars’ mantle is filled with ancient rocky lumps
A new study shows that rocky material from giant asteroid impacts 4.5 billion years ago still lies buried deep within Mars’ mantle. The discovery was made using data from NASA’s InSight lander, which studied the planet until 2022.
The impacts were so powerful that they melted large parts of Mars’ crust and mantle into magma oceans, pushing both impact debris and Martian rock deep inside the planet. These fragments, some up to four kilometers wide, remain scattered across the mantle today.
Researchers say this is the first time the inside of a planet has been studied in such detail. The survival of these ancient pieces shows that Mars’ interior has changed very slowly over billions of years, unlike Earth, where similar traces have likely been erased.
NASA’s InSight mission, which placed the first seismometer on Mars in 2018, recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes. This seismic data made the groundbreaking findings possible.
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